THE  LIBRARY 

OF 

THE  UNIVERSITY 
OF  CALIFORNIA 

LOS  ANGELES 

Ex  Libris 

Katharine  F.  Richmond 

and 
Henry  C.  Fall 


'    r^ 


/7. 


(/ 


ADDRESSES 


COMMEMORATIVE  OF 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 


AND 


JOHN  P.  HALE 


DELIVERED   BY 

DANIEL  HALL 

OF  DOVER,  N.  H. 


WITH    A    BIOGRAPHY   AND   OTHER   SPEECHES    AND    WRITINGS   OF 

THE    ORATOR. 


CONCORD,  N.  H, 
OCTOBER,  1892. 


PRINTED   BY 

REPUBLICAN   PRESS  ASSOCIATION, 

CONCORD,  N.  H. 

1892. 


PREFACE. 


Col.  Daniel  Hall's  complete  and  masterly  oration  on  the 
Capitol  grounds  in  Concord,  New  Hampshire,  on  August 
3,  1892,  at  the  unveiling  of  the  statue  of  that  pioneer  of 
freedom,  Senator  John  P.  Hale,  then  presented  to  the  state 
by  Senator  William  E.  Chandler  of  Concord,  is  printed  in 
the  state's  memorial  volume.  It  is  also  reproduced  in  this 
form,  preceded  by  Col.  Hall's  vivid  eulogy  on  Abraham 
Lincoln  delivered  before  the  Lincoln  Club  of  New  Hamp- 
shire at  Concord  on  February  16,  1887,  and  accompanied 
by  a  biography  of  Col.  Hall,  which  is  substantially  that 
of  his  friend,  Rev.  Dr.  Alonzo  H.  Quint,  first  published 
in  Col.  John  B.  Clarke's  "Sketches  of  Successful  New 
Hampshire  Men,"  and  also  by  other  speeches  and  writings 
of  the  orator. 

The  present  compilation  is  issued  as  a  tribute  to  Col. 
Hall  from  Senator  Chandler,  to  whom  his  modest  friend's 
full  learning,  powerful  memory,  intense  industry,  unsur- 
passable oratorical  gifts,  and  other  varied  mental  attain- 
ments have  always  been  a  wonder  and  admiration. 

Concord,  N.  H.,  October,  1892. 


1066736 


BIOGEAPHT 


OF 


COLONEL  DANIEL  HALL 


Daniel  Hall  was  born  in  the  town  of  Barrington,  N.  H., 
February  28,  1832,  and  is  the  descendant  of  generations 
of  farmers.  His  first  known  American  ancestor  was  John 
Hall,  who  came  to  Dover,  N.  H.,  in  1649,  with  his  brother 
Ralph,  from  Charlestown,  Mass.  Of  this  blood  was  the 
mother  of  Gov.  John  Langdon,  Tobias  Lear  (Washington's 
private  secretary),  and  others  of  like  energy.  This  emi- 
grant, John  Hall,  was  the  first  recorded  deacon  of  the 
Dover  First  Church,  was  town  clerk,  commissioner  to  try 
causes,  and  a  farmer,  but  mainly  surveyor  of  lands.  A 
spring  of  deliciously  cool  water,  still  known  as  "Hall's 
Spring,"  marks  the  locality  of  his  residence  240  years  ago 
on  Dover  Neck.  His  son  Ralph  was  of  Dover,  a  farmer ; 
whose  son  Ralph,  also  a  farmer,  was  one  of  the  early  set- 
tlers of  Barrington  ;  whose  son  Solomon,  also  a  farmer,  was 
of  the  same  town  ;  whose  son  Daniel,  also  a  farmer,  was 
father  of  Oilman  Hall,  who  was  father  of  nine  children, 
the  subject  of  this  sketch  being  his  first-born.  Oilman 
Hall  was  early  a  trader  in  Dover,  but  for  twenty-five  years 
subsequently  was  farmer  and  trader  in  Barrington,  his 
native  town,  on  the  stage  road,  known  as  the  "  Waldron's 
Hill "  road.  He  was  a  bright,  active,  and  highly  capable 
man,  selectman,  and  representative  for  many  years. 

Daniel  Hall's  mother  was  Eliza  Tuttle,  a  descendant  of 
John  Tuttle  of  Dover,  who  was  judge  of  the  superior  court 
for  many  years  prior  to  the  year  1700. 

The  picturesque  old  house  in  which  Daniel  Hall  was 
born,  built  by  one  Hunking,  was  till  a  year  or  two  since 


6  BIOGRAPHY  OF  DANIEL  HALL. 

still  standing  near  Winkley's  pond,  on  the  Nashua  &  Roch- 
ester Railroad,  the  oldest  house  in  town,  and  a  quaint  and 
venerable  landmark,  but  unoccupied  and  in  a  ruinous  con- 
dition. 

With  the  exception  of  what  he  thinks  "  the  best  father 
and  mother  that  ever  lived,"  Daniel  Hall  had  few  early 
advantages.  His  life  as  a  boy  was  on  the  farm.  He  went 
to  the  district  school  a  long  distance,  through  snows  and 
heats,  and  by  and  by  helped  in  the  country  store.  When 
older,  from  fourteen  years  onward,  he  drove  a  team  to 
Dover,  with  wood  and  lumber,  and  sold  his  loads,  standing 
on  Central  square.  But  he  had  a  passion  for  books,  and  a 
burning  desire  for  an  education.  He  learned  all  he  could 
get  in  the  short  district  schools,  and  when  about  sixteen 
years  of  age  he  secured  two  terms,  about  six  months  in  all, 
in  Stratford  Academy, — one  term  under  Ira  F.  Folsom 
(D.  C.  1848),  and  one  under  Rev.  Porter  S.  Burbank.  In 
1849  he  was  one  term  at  the  N.  H.  Conference  Seminary, 
in  Northfield  (now  Tilton),  under  Rev.  Dr.  Richard  S. 
Rust.  Then,  for  satisfactory  reasons,  he  gave  up  all  acad- 
emies, returned  home,  sat  himself  down  alone  to  his  Latin, 
Greek,  and  mathematics,  and  with  indomitable  persever- 
ance prepared  for  college.  He  entered  Dartmouth  in  1850, 
undoubtedly  the  poorest  fitted  of  his  class ;  but  he  had  the 
fitting  of  a  determined  will,  unconquerable  industry,  a  keen 
intellect,  and  the  fibre  of  six  generations  of  open-aif  ances- 
tors, and  in  1854  he  was  graduated  at  the  head  of  his  class, 
and  was  valedictorian.  It  is  needless  to  say,  perhaps,  that 
the  oldest  of  nine  children  had  to  practise  economy  and 
teach  district  schools  five  winters  in  his  native  town  ;  and 
that  what  small  advances  he  had  from  his  father  were 
repaid,  to  the  last  dollar,  from  his  first  earnings. 

In  the  fall  of  1854  he  was  appointed  a  clerk  in  the  New 
York  custom-house,  and  held  the  position  for  three  years. 
He  had  taken  an  early  interest  in  politics,  being  by  educa- 
tion a  Democrat.  But  he  had  always  been  radically  anti- 
slavery  in  sentiment.  He  rebelled  against  the  Kansas- 


BIOGRAPHY   OF   DANIEL   HALL.  7 

Nebraska  bill ;  and  he  alone  in  the  custom-house,  fearless 
of  the  probable  result  to  himself,  openly  denounced  the 
Lecompton  constitution  policy  of  Buchanan,  and  supported 
Douglas.  In  consequence  he  was  removed  from  office  in 
March,  1858. 

Returning  t;o  Dover  he  resumed  the  study  of  law — which 
he  had  commenced  in  New  York — in  the  office  of  the  emi- 
nent lawyer,  Daniel  M.  Christie,  and  pn  that  gentleman's 
motion  was  admitted  to  the  bar  in  Stratford  county  at  the 
May  term,  1860.  He  held  Mr.  Christie  in  the  highest  rev- 
erence and  respect,  which,  upon  his  decease  in  1876,  was 
manifested  by  an  address  upon  his  life  and  character  deliv- 
ered before  the  court,  and  subsequently  printed.  It  was 
regarded  as  an  eloquent  and  appreciative  tribute  to  Mr. 
Christie's  remarkable  qualities  of  manhood,  and  extraordi- 
nary powers  as  a  lawyer. 

Upon  his  admission  to  the  bar,  Mr.  Hall  opened  an  office 
in  Dover,  and  commenced  practice.  In  the  spring  of  1859, 
just  before  the  state  election,  in  view  of  the  great  crisis 
coming  upon  the  country,  he  (as  did  also  Judge  Charles 
Doe  at  the  same  time)  withdrew  from  the  Democratic  party 
and  cast  in  his  allegiance  with  the  Republicans.  With 
them,  where  his  conscience  and  political  principles  alike 
placed  him,  has  his  lot  been  cast  ever  since ;  and  his  ser- 
vices, in  later  and  critical  years,  have  had  an  important 
bearing  upon  New  Hampshire's  political  destinies. 

In  1859  he  was  appointed,  by  the  governor  and  council, 
school  commissioner  for  Stratford  county,  and  was  re- 
appointed  in  1860.  His  early  training  in  the  country  dis- 
trict school,  his  work  as  master  in  the  winters,  and  his 
hard-earned  higher  education  qualified  him  eminently  for 
the  practical  duties  of  this  office. 

In  the  autumn  of  1861  he  was  appointed  secretary  of  the 
United  States  senate  committee  to  investigate  the  surrender 
of  the  Norfolk  navy-yard.  This  committee  consisted  of 
John  P.  Hale,  Andrew  Johnson,  and  James  W.  Grimes. 
Soon  after,  he  was  appointed  clerk  of  the  senate  committee 


8  BIOGRAPHY   OF  DANIEL   HALL. 

on  naval  affairs,  at  Washington,  of  which  Mr.  Hale  was 
chairman.  He  served  a  few  months  in  this  capacity,  but 
wished  for  more  active  participation  in  the  great  struggle 
then  in  progress.  The  conflict,  which  had  its  symptoms  in 
the  Lecompton  strife,  had  become  war,  and  the  young  man 
who  had  then  surrendered  office  for  principles  was  ready 
for  a  still  greater  sacrifice.  In  March,  1862,  he  was  com- 
missioned aide-de-camp  and  captain  in  the  regular  army, 
and  assigned  to  duty  with  Gen.  John  C.  Fremont;  but 
before  he  had  time  to  join  him,  Gen.  Fremont  had  retired 
from  command,  and  Capt.  Hall  was  transferred  to  the  staff 
of  Gen.  A.  W.  Whipple,  then  in  command,  at  Arlington 
Heights,  of  the  troops  and  works  in  front  of  Washington, 
on  the  south  side  of  the  Potomac.  In  September,  1862,  in 
the  Antietam  campaign,  he,  with  Gen.  Whipple,  joined  the 
Army  of  the  Potomac,  and  eventually  marched  with  it  to 
the  front  at  Fredericksburg.  On  the  13th  of  December, 
1862,  he  was  in  the  battle  of  Fredericksburg,  crossing  the 
river  with  the  third  corps,  and  taking  part  in  the  sanguin- 
ary assault  upon  the  works  which  covered  Marye's  Heights. 

At  the  battle  of  Chancellorsville  he  was  in  the  column 
sent  out  to  strike  Jackson's  flank  or  rear,  on  his  celebrated 
flank  march,  and  in  the  gallant  action  of  the  third  division 
of  the  third  corps,  under  Gen.  Whipple,  and  was  with  that 
lamented  officer  when  he  fell  mortally  wounded. 

Capt.  Hall  was  then  assigned  to  the  staff  of  Gen.  Oliver 
O.  Howard,  commanding  the  eleventh  corps,  and  with  him 
participated  in  the  campaign  and  battle  of  Gettysburg.  On 
the  second  day  of  the  engagement  he  was  slightly  wounded 
by  a  shell.  He  remained  with  the  eleventh  corps,  serving 
in  various  staff  capacities,  till  it  was  ordered  West. 

In  the  latter  part  of  1863  his  health  gave  way,  and  he 
was  forced  to  leave  the  Army  of  the  Potomac  in  December 
of  that  year.  But,  in  June,  1864,  he  was  appointed  provost- 
marshal  of  the  first  New  Hampshire  district,  being  stationed 
at  Portsmouth,  and  here  he  remained  until  the  close  of  the 
war.  The  affairs  of  the  office  were  in  some  confusion,  but 


BIOGRAPHY   OF   DANIEL   HALL.  9 

his  methodical  habits  soon  reduced  it  to  order.  During  his 
term  of  service  he  enlisted  or  drafted,  and  forwarded  over 
four  thousand  men  to  the  army.  This  service,  which  ceased 
in  October,  1865,  was  marked  by  signal  ability,  integrity, 
and  usefulness  to  the  government.  "  He  was  one  of  the 
men,"  said  a  substitute  broker,  "that  no  man  dared  ap- 
proach with  a  crooked  proposition,  no  matter  how  much 
was  in  it." 

Mr.  Hall  resumed  the  practice  of  law  in  Dover,  but  was, 
in  1866,  appointed  clerk  of  the  courts  for  Stratford  county, 
and,  in  1868,  judge  of  the  police  court  for  the  city  of  Dover. 
The  duties  were  performed  with  his  usual  ability  and  jus- 
tice, but,  in  1874,  the  Democratic  party  (being  in  power) 
"  addressed  "  him  out  of  both  offices.  Meantime  he  was 
judge-advocate  in  the  military  of  New  Hampshire  under 
Gov.  Smyth,  and  held  a  position  on  the  staff  of  Gov.  Harri- 
man,  which  gave  him  his  usual  title  of  colonel. 

Col.  Hall  had  long  taken  a  deep  interest  in  political 
affairs.  To  him  they  represented  principles.  In  1873  he 
was  president  of  the  Republican  state  convention  at  Con- 
cord. He  had  been  for  some  years  a  member  of  the  state 
committee  when,  in  December,  1873,  his  abilities  as  a  leader 
and  executive  were  recognized  in  his  selection  as  chairman 
of  that  committee.  He  so  remained  till  1877,  and  con- 
ducted the  campaigns,  state  and  national,  of  1874,  1875, 
and  1876.  These  were  critical  years  for  the  Republican 
party.  The  nearly  even  balance  of  parties  in  New  Hamp- 
shire, the  vigor  and  intensity  with  which  the  battles  are 
always  fought,  and  the  skill  necessary  in  every  department, 
demanded  abilities  and  energies  of  the  highest  order.  The 
years  mentioned  surpassed  ordinary  years  in  political  dan- 
ger to  the  Republicans.  It  is  sufficient  to  say  that  Col. 
Hall  conducted  the  last  three  campaigns  to  a  triumphant 
issue.  So  decisive  were  the  successive  victories  that  the 
tide  was  turned  permanently,  and  from  that  time  the  state 
has  not  swerved  from  her  Republican  allegiance. 

In  1876  Col.  Hall  was  chairman  of  the  New  Hampshire 
2 


10  BIOGRAPHY   OF  DANIEL   HALL. 

delegation  to  the  Republican  national  convention  at  Cin- 
cinnati, being  chosen  at  large,  unpledged,  and  with  scarce 
a  dissenting  vote.  He  voted  on  the  decisive  ballot  for 
Rutherford  B.  Hayes. 

In  1876  and  1877  he  was,  by  appointment  of  Gov.  Che- 
ney, reporter  of  the  decisions  of  the  supreme  court  of  New 
Hampshire,  and  published  volumes  56  and  57  of  the  New 
Hampshire  Reports. 

In  1877  he  received  the  appointment  of  naval  officer  at 
the  port  of  Boston.  This  office  is  coordinate  with  that  of 
collector,  upon  which  it  is  a  check,  and,  when  properly 
administered,  is  of  great  value  to  the  country.  Col.  Hall's 
business  habits,  his  keen  insight,  his  perfect  accuracy,  and 
the  ruling  principle  of  his  life  to  do  everything  well  and 
thoroughly,  there  came  into  operation.  He  quietly  mas- 
tered the  details  as  well  as  the  general  work  of  the  depart- 
ment. Regularly  at  his  post,  his  office  became  a  model  in 
its  management,  and  was  commended  in  the  highest  terms 
by  the  proper  officers.  When,  therefore,  his  term  expired, 
he  was  reappointed  by  President  Arthur  without  opposi- 
tion, and  remained  in  office  till  removed  by  President 
Cleveland  in  1885. 

The  office,  under  his  management,  performed  its  func- 
tions to  the  advantage  of  the  government,  participating 
influentially  in  the  collection  of  many  millions  of  customs 
revenue,  and  insuring  the  faithful  enforcement  of  all  the 
revenue  laws.  Under  him  there  was  no  proscription,  politi- 
cal or  personal.  No  subordinate  was  removed  to  make  way 
for  any  favorite ;  but  the  force,  with  some  additions  made 
necessary  by  the  increase  of  business,  remained  substan- 
tially as  he  found  it.  It  is  believed  that,  without  making 
any  high-sounding  professions  of  "  reform,"  the  head  of  the 
naval  office,  from  1877  to  1886,  made  a  clean  official  record, 
and  gave  a  practical  exhibition  of  the  best  kind  of  civil  ser- 
vice by  appointing  capable  men  only,  and  by  keeping  good 
men  in  their  places,  and  making  no  changes  among  faithful 
subordinates  for  the  personal  ends  of  himself  or  his  friends. 


BIOGRAPHY  OF   DANIEL  HALL.  11 

Col.  Hall  has  been  prominent  for  many  years  in  the 
Grand  Army  of  the  Republic,  and  taken  great  interest  in 
the  order.  He  has  been  judge-advocate  and  senior  vice- 
commander,  and  is  now  commander  of  the  Department  of 
New  Hampshire. 

He  drafted  the  law  establishing  the  New  Hampshire  Sol- 
diers' Home ;  was  very  active  in  securing  its  adoption,  and 
has  been  a  member  of  the  board  of  managers  ever  since  its 
establishment. 

He  is  a  trustee  of  the  Strafford  Savings  Bank  in  Dover, 
and  attends  the  First  Parish  Congregational  Church,  where 
his  emigrant  ancestor  held  office  nearly  two  centuries  and 
a  half  ago.  He  is  a  radical  teetotaller,  and  has  taken  an 
active  and  life-long  interest  in  the  cause  of  temperance,  and 
in  the  protection  of  animals. 

Col.  Hall  married,  January  25,  1877,  Sophia,  daughter 
of  Jonathan  T.  and  Sarah  (Hanson)  Dodge  of  Rochester, 
and  has  one  son,  Arthur  Wellesley  Hall,  born  August  30, 
1878. 

Col.  Hall  has  delivered  numerous  public  addresses,  as 
occasion  demanded,  which  have  exhibited  thought,  patriot- 
ism, scholarship,  and  a  comprehensive  interest  in  public 
affairs.  His  oratorical  and  literary  efforts  have  embraced 
memorial  and  dedicatory  addresses,  political  speeches,  lect- 
ures on  literary,  educational,  and  military  subjects,  articles 
for  the  press,  and  eulogies  upon  Lincoln,  Grant,  Hale, 
Christie,  and  others. 

Fidelity  to  every  engagement,  good  faith  to  every  prin- 
ciple espoused,  firmness  of  purpose,  steady  industry  and 
efficiency  in  every  work  undertaken,  are  his  leading  charac- 
teristics, and  have  ensured  him  a  measure  of  success,  fully 
equal  to  the  expectations  of  a  nature  not  unduly  ambitious 
for  what  are  generally  esteemed  the  high  prizes  in  life. 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 


MR.  PRESIDENT:  I  understand  that  I  am  ex- 
pected to  occupy  a  few  minutes  of  your  time  in 
speaking  of  "Abraham  Lincoln  as  a  Man."  The 
theme  is  too  large  for  me,  and  crushes  me  at  the 
beginning.  It  is  like  speaking  of  the  sun ;  and  as, 
while  we  stand  in  the  full  effulgence  of  that  great 
luminary,  flooding  the  world  with  its  light  and 
warmth  and  life-giving  power,  it  is  impossible  to 
disentangle  and  analyze  its  various  and  many-hued 
rays  of  beneficence,  so  is  it  difficult  to  emphasize 
any  separate  aspects  of  this  illustrious  and  many- 
sided  character.  The  mere  character  of  a  great 
man  not  seldom  confers  greater  benefits  upon  the 
nation,  and  upon  the  epoch  in  which  he  lives,  than 
any,  or  even  all,  of  his  specific  achievements.  I 
have  sometimes  thought  that  such  was  the  ministry 
to  us  of  the  life  of  Abraham  Lincoln ;  for  though  it 
was  given  to  him  to  connect  his  name  inseparably 
with  some  of  the  greatest  events  in  our  history, — 
the  overthrow  of  the  Rebellion,  the  maintenance  of 
the  Union,  the  emancipation  of  the  slave, — yet  when 
we  consider  the  great  moral  authority  his  name  has 
gained,  the  ideas  and  associations  that  cluster  about 
that  unique  individuality,  how  his  influence  and  ex- 
ample and  precepts  have  uplifted  this  people  in  their 
whole  being,  it  seems  as  if  he  had  brought  a  new 


14  ABRAHAM   LINCOLN. 

force  into  our  national  life ;  had  set  in  motion  a  train 
of  benign  influences  which  is  to  go  on  without  limit, 
so  that  in  future  his  age  is  to  form  a  new  date  and 
point  of  departure  in  our  political  calendar. 

So  familiar  is  his  personality  to  us  that  we  scarcely 
need  to  know  more  of  him;  and  yet  I  think  all  of  us 
must  be  reading  with  deep  interest  the  new  Life  of 
Lincoln,  which  is  appearing  in  "The  Century," 
and  throwing  fresh  light  upon  his  origin,  his  educa- 
tion, and  his  early  career.  There  was  a  special  fit- 
ness in  the  birth,  amid  the  poorest  and  harshest 
surroundings,  of  him  whose  destiny  it  was  to  assert 
for  his  country  and  his  age  the  divine  right,  not  of 
kings,  but  of  humanity, — the  essential  equality  of 
men,  and  their  right  to  an  untrammelled  liberty  and 
an  unfettered  pursuit  of  happiness.  ~No  training  in 
the  schools  entered  into  his  preparation  for  his  great 
work,  but  he  lived  the  life  of  the  broad  West,  breath- 
ing its  free  and  invigorating  air,  and  thus  developed 
a  sterling  manhood,  health  of  body,  and  strength  of 
limb,  truth  in  every  word  and  deed,  and  a  clearness 
of  vision  and  moral  intrepidity  which  the  schools 
cannot  supply.  Thus  reared,  amid  humble  and 
simple  surroundings,  he  "  mewed  his  mighty  youth  " 
in  warfare  upon 

"  The  uncleared  forest,  the  unbroken  soil, 
The  iron  bark  that  turns  the  lumherer's  axe, 
The  rapid  that  o'erbears  the  boatman's  toil, 
The  prairie,  hiding  the  mazed  wanderer's  tracks, 

"  The  ambushed  Indian  and  the  prowling  bear, — 
Such  were  the  needs  that  helped  his  youth  to  train : 
Rough  culture — but  such  trees  large  fruit  may  bear, 
If  but  their  stocks  b3  of  right  girth  and  grain." 


ABRAHAM   LINCOLN.  15 

In  such  a  mould  his  life  took  on  that  rough  exterior 
and  homely  garb  which  shaped  it  for  all  time,  and 
made  him  "  in  his  simplicity  sublime." 

These  struggles  of  pioneer  life  were  the  bracing 
on  of  the  armor  of  Vulcan  which  equipped  him  for 
deeds  of  high  emprise;  they  made  him  brave  and 
true,  genuine  and  sincere, — one  to  whom  duty 
should  be  first,  and  the  rights  of  man  second;  and 
he  grew  up  having  in  him  what  our  ancestors,  with 
awful  solemnity,  called  "the  fear  of  God."  To  his 
latest  day  he  took  on  no  veneer  of  polish ;  he  assum- 
ed no  dramatic  attitudes  for  dazzling  the  eye  or 
impressing  the  imagination,  and  was  guilty  of  no 
trickeries  to  cheat  the  judgment  of  contemporaries 
or  of  posterity. 

It  is  not  necessary  to  trace  Mr.  Lincoln's  path- 
way, step  by  step,  upward  toward  the  high  places 
of  the  world.  You  are  all  familiar  with  the  slow 
but  sure  processes  of  his  growth  and  advancement. 
His  original  abilities  were  of  a  high  order.  He  saw 
quickly  and  distinctly.  His  mind  was  clear,  and 
open  to  truth  as  the  flowers  are  to  the  sunlight  and 
the  dew.  His  reasonings  were  close  and  sound. 
He  was  a  man  of  power  and  effectiveness,  and  so 
steadily  did  he  grow  in  public  esteem  that  long 
before  his  great  preferment  was  dreamed  of  he  en- 
joyed a  popular  regard  almost  unparalleled.  No 
stronger  proof  of  his  intellectual  and  moral  energy 
can  be  cited  than  the  rapid  and  strong  hold  which 
he  gained  in  due  time  upon  the  patriotism,  the  con- 
fidence, and  the  faith  of  the  country.  These  ele- 
ments crystallized  with  an  unhesitating  abandon 
about  his  name,  and  the  strength  and  vitality  of  the 


16  ABRAHAM   LINCOLN. 

free  North  took  the  color  of  his  mind,  and  became 
charged  with  his  personality.  That  he  was  a  great 
lawyer,  with  vigorous  powers  of  logic  and  compar- 
ison and  illustration,  and  a  strong  grasp  upon  legal 
principles,  will  be  shown  to  you  by  another,  amply 
competent  to  present  to  you  that  phase  of  his  great- 
ness; and  I  will  not  trench  upon  his  province. 

He  was  also  an  orator  of  rare  power.  Before 
those  rather  rude  audiences  of  the  West,  which  had 
no  fastidiousness,  and  judged  him  by  no  nice  stand- 
ard of  taste,  he  was  grandly  effective,  and  convinced 
and  swayed  them  with  consummate  skill.  With  them 
he  employed,  as  he  did  everywhere,  those  "rugged 
phrases  hewn  from  life,"  and  that  inimitable  wit  and 
genial  humor  which  testified  to  his  real  seriousness, 
and  the  zest  and  relish  with  which  he  entered  into 
the  life  around  him.  The  severe  logic,  the  clear- 
ness and  compactness  of  statement,  the  moral  earn- 
estness which  struck  a  deeper  chord  even  than  con- 
viction,— all  these  appear  in  some  of  his  speeches 
in  congress,  and  notably  in  the  renowned  debate 
between  him  and  Douglas;  and  in  these  and  his 
casual  addresses,  more  still  in  his  unstudied  con- 
versations, there  is  to  be  found  phrase  after  phrase 
that  has  the  ring,  and  the  weight,  and  the  sharp 
outline  of  a  bronze  coin.  But  he  filled  also  the 
requisites  of  a  higher  and  more  exacting  criticism. 
Though  unlearned,  and  without  the  graces  of  the 
schools,  he  was  sometimes  gifted  with  the  loftiest 
eloquence.  On  great  occasions,  written  and  spoken 
speech  has  rarely  risen  to  higher  levels  than  from 
his  lips.  Some  of  his  utterances,  instinct  with  sol- 
emn thoughtfulness,  and  illustrated  by  beauty  of 


ABRAHAM   LINCOLN.  17 

diction,  a  sententious  brevity,  and  felicitous  turns 
of  expression,  such  as  the  Cooper  Institute  speech, 
his  inaugural  addresses,  and  the  oration  at  Gettys- 
burg, are  masterpieces,  to  live  and  resound  as  long 
as  the  English  tongue  survives. 

Mr.  Lincoln  answered,  as  I  think,  another  of  the 
unerring  tests  of  greatness,  in  his  marked  individu- 
ality, and  his  unique  unlikeness  to  everybody  else. 
He  had  no  affectation  of  singularity,  and  yet  he 
created  a  distinctness  of  impression  which  seems  to 
point  him  out  as  a  type  by  himself,  a  distinct  spe- 
cies created  by  the  Divine  m  hand  in  the  evolution  of 
time.  His  image  on  our  vision  is  not  a  blur,  but 
is  as  distinctly  and  sharply  cut  as  the  outline  of  a 
cameo,  or 

"  The  dome  of  Florence  drawn  on  the  deep  blue  sky." 

]STo  other  great  man  as  yet  in  the  least  resembles 
him  ;  and  if,  my  friends,  we  are  so  happy  one  day 
as  to  meet  the  shades  of  the  great  in  the  Elysian 
fields,  we  shall  know  that  exalted  spirit  at  a  glance, 
and  we  shall  no  more  mistake  the  identity  of  Abra- 
ham Lincoln  than  we  shall  that  of  Caesar  or  Crom- 
well or  Napoleon,  Washington  or  Grant.  Nature 
stamps  her  particular  sign-manual  upon  each  of 
her  supremely  great  creations,  and  we  may  be  sure 
that  she  broke  the  die  in  moulding  Lincoln. 

To  a  club  which  has  honored  itself  by  taking  his 
great  name,  an  inquiry  into  Mr.  Lincoln's  concep- 
tion of  politics  must  ever  be  a  study  of  the  deepest 
interest.  In  the  first  place,  he  was  a  politician  from 
the  crown  of  his  head  to  the  sole  of  his  foot,  and, 


18  ABRAHAM   LINCOLN. 

himself  pure,  sober,  temperate,  chaste,  and  incor- 
ruptible, he  never  shrank  from  what  the  mawkish 
sentimentality  of  our  day  affects  to  condemn  and 
sneer  at  as  the  vulgarity  of  engaging  in  politics. 
He  entered  with  ardor  into  the  political  life  around 
him ;  he  engaged  in  party  caucuses,  conventions, 
and  gatherings  ;  he  mixed  in  the  political  manage- 
ment of  his  state,  his  county,  his  district,  his  town- 
ship, and  received  no  contamination  thereby.  He 
conceived  this  to  be  the  duty  of  every  citizen  of  a 
free  republic,  and  no  word  discouraging  political 
activity  ever  fell  from  his  lips.  He  carried  into  his 
politics  the  same  morality  that  he  used  in  his  daily 
dealings  with  clients  and  friends.  He  was  incapa- 
ble of  intrigue,  he  was  true  and  transparent,  and 
no  duplicity  ever  stained  his  integrity.  He  studied 
the  currents  of  public  opinion,  not  as  a  demagogue 
to  slavishly  follow  them,  but  from  a  profound  con- 
viction that,  as  to  times  and  means,  all  men  are 
wiser  than  any  one  man,  and  from  a  real  respect 
for  the  will  of  the  people,  to  which  he  ever  rendered 
a  genuine  homage.  He  sought  no  power.  He  was 
too  healthy  and  natural  to  be  disturbed  by  any 
troubled  dreams  of  a  great  destiny  ;  and  if  he  had 
ambition,  it  was  free  from  vulgar  taint.  But  in 
power  he  never  forgot  his  trusteeship  for  the  peo- 
ple, and  he  never  lost  elbow-touch  with  those  to 
whom  he  rendered 

"  The  constant  service  of  the  antique  world, 
When  service  sweat  for  duty,  not  for  meed." 

The  world  knew,  therefore,  that  glory,  or  vanity, 
or  lust  of  power  had  no  place  in  that  pure  heart. 


ABRAHAM   LINCOLN.  19 

"  His    ends    were    his    country's,    his    God's,    and 
truth's,"  and  thus  did  he  earn  the  proud  title  of 

"  Statesman,  yet  friend  to  truth  !  of  soul  sincere, 
In  action  faithful,  and  in  honor  clear ; 
Who  broke  no  promise,  served  no  private  end, 
Who  gained  no  title,  and  who  lost  no  friend." 

Therefore,  Mr.  President,  I  claim  that  his  whole 
life  is  a  standing  reproof  to  the  flippant  notion  and 
the  skeptical  and  cynical  fling  that  politics  is  a  dis- 
honest game.  He  was  a  politician  from  the  outset ; 
and  if  there  is  one  lesson  inculcated  here  to-day 
by  his  life  and  character,  it  is  that  politics  in  a  free 
government  affords  the  loftiest  themes  of  thought 
and  the  grandest  theatre  of  action  for  men  of  great 
and  consecrated  powers.  He  was  a  striking  proof 
that  the  honestest  politics  is  the  best  politics,  that 
the  greatest  prizes  are  gained  by  unselfish  souls, 
and  that,  in  fact,  there  is  in  decent  politics  no  room 
for  a  dishonest  man.  Here  was  a  man  devoted  all 
his  life  to  politics  in  America,  with  a  zeal  and  in- 
tensity which  left  him  no  time  for  the  study  of  any- 
thing but  politics,  and  the  law  by  which  he  gained 
his  meagre  livelihood  ;  and  if,  as  has  been  said, 
there  is  something  narrowing  in  the  profession  of 
law,  and  degrading  in  the  pursuit  of  politics,  surely 
Abraham  Lincoln  did  not  exemplify  it,  nor  did  he, 

" born  for  the  universe,  narrow  his  mind, 


And  to  party  give  up  what  was  meant  for  mankind." 

After  his  great  elevation,  his  speeches  and  state 
papers    are    replete   with    proofs    of   his    political 


20  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

insight,  his  clearness  of  vision,  and  his  far-reaching 
views  He  saw  vividly  the  great  considerations 
which  determined  his  duty,  and  that  of  his  party, 
on  the  question  of  disunion.  He  felt  in  his  own 
breast  the  pulsations  of  this  mighty  land.  He  saw 
his  country  and  her  splendid  opportunities  for  a 
great  race  of  empire, — no  oceans  or  mountains 
dividing,  great  rivers  connecting,  a  common  ori- 
gin, a  common  history,  common  traditions,  a  com- 
mon language,  continuity  of  soil,  and  a  great  posi- 
tion in  the  family  of  nations  which  unity  alone 
could  secure.  He  rose  to  the  full  height  of  the 
issues-  involved.  He  knew  that  should  the  South 
succeed  in  winning  independence  "the  cloth  once 
rent  would  be  rent  again ; "  that  there  would  no 
longer  be  one  America,  but  many  Americas  ;  that 
the  New  World  would  tread  over  again  in  the 
bloody  tracks  of  the  Old  ;  that  there  would  be  rival 
communities,  with  rival  constitutions,  democracies 
lapsing  into  military  despotisms,  intrigues,  dissen- 
sions, and  wars  following  on  wars.  Therefore  this 
man,  so  gentle,  so  mild,  so  peace-loving,  that  every 
shot  sent  a  pang  to  his  own  heart,  could  give  the 
word  of  command,  and,  with  unbending  will,  see 
the  United  States  tear  open  their  veins,  and  spill 
their  blood  in  torrents  that  they  might  remain  one 
people.  But  throughout  the  sanguinary  carnival 
through  which  he  was  forced  to  lead  us  for  four 
long  years,  Mr.  Lincoln's  nature  remained  true 
and  tender  and  forgiving.  "No  bitterness  and  no 
uncharitableness  usurped  any  place  in  his  heart. 
There  was  nothing  local  or  provincial  in  his  patriot- 
ism. Notwithstanding  the  insults  and  contempt 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  21 

lavished  upon  himself,  despite  the  injury  and  wrong 
done  to  what  he  held  dearer  than  himself, — the 
Union  and  the  liberty  which  it  made  possible, — he 
still  enfolded  the  South  in  his  warmest  affections. 
His  whole  public  life  is  full  of  evidences  of  this 
breadth  of  view,  this  catholicity  of  temper,  this  far- 
reaching  statesmanship,  this  magnanimous  and 
Christian  spirit.  He  yearned  for  peace  unceas- 
ingly ;  and  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  a  complete 
pacification  and  reconciliation  on  the  basis  of  impar- 
tial liberty  was  the  last  and  fondest  dreatn  of  his 
great  soul,  rudely  interrupted  by  the  stroke  of  the 
assassin.  He  lived  not  to  realize  his  great  designs, 
yet  he  fulfilled  his  historic  mission,  and  what  a 
large  arc  in  the  completed  circle  of  our  country's 
history  will  his  administration  embrace !  What 
harvests  of  martial  and  civic  virtue  were  garnered 
in  !  What  a  treasure-house  of  national  memories 
and  heroic  traditions  was  prepared  !  What  a  new 
and  glorious  impulse  was  communicated  to  the 
national  life  ! 

What  was  achieved  by  his  genius  and  character, 
by  that  peculiar  combination  and  summary  of  qual- 
ities of  heart  and  brain  and  environment  which 
make  up  what  we  call  Abraham  Lincoln,  we,  by 
our  finite  standards  and  our  partial  view  of  the 
scopes  and  orbits  of  human  influence,  can  never 
adequately  measure.  But  some  things  we  see  in 
their  completeness  before  our  eyes.  We  gaze  with 
admiration  upon  his  pure  and  upright  character, 
his  immovable  firmness  and  determination  in  the 
right,  his  inexhaustible  patience  and  hopefulness 
under  reverses.  We  remember  how  steadily  these 


22  ABRAHAM   LINCOLN. 

masterful  qualities  wrought  upon  the  public  mind, 
till  his  quaint  wisdom,  his  disinterestedness,  his 
identification  with  the  principles  that  underlay  the 
issues  of  the  Civil  War,  made  his  name  represent- 
ative of  all  that  was  highest  and  holiest  and  best 
in  the  North,  and  gave  it  a  prestige  which  alone 
was  sufficient  to  carry  us  triumphantly  through  to 
the  end.  Before  this  prestige  all  resistance  was 
discomfited,  and  his  was  the  hand  to  complete 
and  adorn  the  unfinished  temple  of  our  fathers. 
Substituting  the  corner-stone  of  Freedom  for  that 
of  Slavery,  he  built  anew  the  indestructible  edifice 
of  our  Liberty,  giving  it  new  proportions  of  beauty, 
lifting  up  into  the  clear  blue  its  towers  and  pin- 
nacles, white  and  pure,  and  crowning  all  with 
the  Emancipation  Proclamation  as  its  fitting  cap- 
stone. He  it  was  who  presided  over  the  strife 
which  restored  the  Union,  and  "  out  of  the  nettle 
Danger  plucked  the  flower  Safety."  But  for  that 
great  character,  raising  high  above  the  tumult  of 
contending  parties  its  voice  of  patriotism  and  mod- 
eration— that  moderation  which  a  profound  writer 
calls  "the  great  regulator  of  human  intelligence" 
— who  shall  say  that  this  government  would  not 
have  been  rent  asunder,  and  the  Ship  of  State 
foundered  with  all  on  board  ?  There  is  no  differ- 
ence of  opinion  now  as  to  the  grandeur  and  nobil- 
ity of  this  service.  It  was  the  finishing  touch  upon 
the  work  of  Washington.  Before  Lincoln,  Wash- 
ington stood  alone  as  the  one  great  typical  Amer- 
ican. But  now  a  new  planet  has  come  into  our 
field  of  vision,  and  with  him  holds  its  place  in  our 
clear  upper  sky.  Indeed,  it  is  a  significant  fact 


ABRAHAM   LINCOLN.  23 

that,  as  time  goes  on,  our  Southern  people,  who  so 
sorely  taxed  and  saddened  that  great  spirit,  are 
gaining  a  love  and  reverence  for  him  almost  tran- 
scending our  own.  Those  whom  he  reduced  to 
obedience  are  foremost  in  appreciation  of  him,  so 
that  that  eloquent  son  and  orator  of  the  New  South 
(Henry  "W.  Grady)  could  rise  at  the  banquet  of 
the  New  England  Society  of  New  York  on  last 
Forefathers'  Day,  and  pay  this  lofty  tribute  to  his 
genius  and  virtue. 

Said  he,  "  From  the  union  of  these  colonists, 
from  the  straightening  of  their  purposes  and  the 
crossing  of  their  blood,  slow  perfecting  through  a 
century,  came  he  who  stands  as  the  first  typical 
American,  the  first  who  comprehended  within  him- 
self all  the  strength  and  gentleness,  all  the  majesty 
and  grace,  of  this  republic — Abraham  Lincoln.  He 
was  the  sum  of  Puritan  and  Cavalier,  for  in  his 
ardent  nature  were  fused  the  virtues  of  both,  and 
in  the  depths  of  his  great  soul  the  faults  of  both 
were  lost.  He  was  greater  than  Puritan,  greater 
than  Cavalier,  in  that  he  was  American,  and  that 
in  his  homely  form  were  first  gathered  the  vast 
and  thrilling  forces  of  this  ideal  government — 
charging  it  with  such  tremendous  meaning,  and  so 
elevating  it  above  human  suffering  that  martyr- 
dom, though  infamously  aimed,  came  as  a  fitting 
crown  to  a  life  consecrated  from  the  cradle  to 
human  liberty." 

This  is  equally  beautiful  and  true  ;  and  it  well 
pays  us  for  waiting  to  hear  it  come  at  last  from  the 
lips  of  a  Georgian,  representing  a  city  so  hammered 
and  trampled  upon  by  our  hosts  that  scarcely  one 


24  ABRAHAM   LINCOLN. 

stone  of  it  was  left  upon  another  in  the  gigantic 
struggle. 

Not  less  striking,  nor  less  surely  the  voice  of  the 
civilized  world,  were  those  strains,  which,  a  few 
days  after  his  death,  swelled  from  the  harp  of 
England  through  the  pages  of  Punch,  which  had 
ridiculed  and  insulted  him  through  life : 

You  lay  a  wreath  on  murdered  Lincoln's  bier, 
You,  who  with  mocking  pencil  wont  to  trace, 

Broad  for  the  self-complacent  British  sneer, 

His  length  of  shambling  limb,  his  furrowed  face, 

His  gaunt,  gnarled  hands,  his  unkempt,  bristling  hair, 

His  garb  uncouth,  his  bearing  ill  at  ease, 
His  lack  of  all  we  prize  as  debonair, 

Of  power  or  will  to  shine,  of  art  to  please, — 

You,  whose  smart  pen  backed  up  the  pencil's  laugh, 
Judging  eacli  step  as  though  the  way  were  plain ; 

Reckless,  so  it  could  point  its  paragraph, 
Of  chief's  perplexity,  or  people's  pain ! 

Beside  this  corpse,  that  bears  for  winding  sheet 
The  stars  and  stripes  he  lived  to  rear  anew, 

Between  the  mourners  at  his  head  and  feet, 
Say,  scurril  jester,  is  there  room  tor'you? 

Yes,  he  had  lived  to  shame  me  from  my  sneer ; 

To  lame  my  pencil  and  confute  my  pen ;  — 
To  make  me  own  this  hind  of  princes  peer ; 

This  rail-splitter  a  true  born  king  of  men. 

My  shallow  judgment  I  had  learnt  to  rue, 

Noting  how  to  occasion's  height  he  rose  ; 
How  his  quaint  wit  made  home-truth  seem  more  true  ; 

How  iron-like  his  temper  grew  by  blows ; 


ABEAHAM   LINCOLN.  25 

How  humble,  yet  how  hopeful,  he  could  be ; 

How,  in  good  fortune  and  in  ill,  the  same  ; 
Nor  bitter  in  success,  nor  boastful  he, 

Thirsty  for  gold,  nor  feverish  for  fame. 

He  went  about  his  work — such  work  as  few 
Ever  had  laid  on  head,  and  heart,  and  hand — 

As  one  who  knows,  where  there's  a  task  to  do, 

Man's  honest  will  must  heaven's  good  grace  command. 

Who  trusts  the  strength  will  with  the  burden  grow, 
That  God  makes  instruments  to  work  his  will, 

If  but  that  will  we  can  arrive  to  know, 

Nor  tamper  with  the  weights  of  good  and  ill. 

So  he  went  forth  to  battle,  on  the  side 

That  he  felt  clear  was  Liberty's  and  Right's, 

As  in  his  peasant  boyhood  he  had  plied 

His  warfare  with  rude  Nature's  thwarting  mights. 


So  he  grew  .up  a  destined  work  to  do, 

And  lived  to  do  it ;  four  long-suffering  years' 

Hi-fate,  ill-feeling,  ill-report  lived  through. 

And  then  he  heard  the  hisses  change  to  cheers, 

The  taunts  to  tribute,  the  abuse  to  praise 

And  took  both  with  the  same  unwavering  mood  : 

Till,  as  he  came  on  light,  from  darking  days, 

And  seemed  to  toucli  the  goal  from  where  he  stood, 

A  felon  had,  between  the  goal  and  him, 

Reached  from  behind  his  back,  a  trigger  prest, — 

And  those  perplexed  and  patient  eyes  were  dim, 
Those  gaunt,  long-laboring  limbs  were  laid  to  rest : 

The  words  of  mercy  were  upon  his  lips, 
Forgiveness  in  his  heart  and  on  his  pen, 

When  this  vile  murderer  brought  swift  eclipse 
To  thoughts  of  peace  on  earth,  good-will  to  men. 


26  ABRAHAM   LINCOLN. 

The  Old  World  and  the  New,  from  sea  to  sea, 

Utter  one  voice  of  sympathy  and  shame ! 
Sore  heart,  so  stopped  when  it  at  last  beat  high ! 

Sad  life,  cut  short  just  as  the  triumph  came ! 

A  deed  accurst !     Strokes  have  been  struck  before 
By  the  assassin's  hand,  whereof  men  doubt 

If  more  of  horror  or  disgrace  they  bore, 

But  thy  foul  crime,  like  Cain's,  shines  darkly  out. 

Vile  hand,  that  brandest  murder  on  a  strife, 
Whate'er  its  grounds,  stoutly  and  nobly  striven, 

And  with  the  martyr's  crown  crownest  a  life 
With  much  to  praise,  little  to  be  forgiven ! 

Therefore,  it  is  clear  that  whatever  differences 
we  are  to  have  hereafter  with  our  brethren  of  the 
recent  strife,  and  with  the  races  of  mankind,  we 
are,  by  common  consent,  to  stand  with  equal  rev- 
erence before  him ;  and  contemplating  the  life 
onward  and  upward  of  this  peasant  boy,  from  the 
log  cabin  to  the  White  House,  and  the  moral  dicta- 
torship of  the  world,  I  involuntarily  bow  before  the 
inscrutable  things  of  the  universe,  and  exclaim, — 
"  Sublime  destiny  !  to  have  climbed  by  his  unaided 
energies  not  only  to  the  summit  of  earthly  power, 
but  to  the  reverence  of  history,  and  an  undisputed 
dominion  over  the  hearts  and  minds  of  posterity  in 
all  coming  ages." 

I  have  spoken  of  Mr.  Lincoln's  plainness  and 
simplicity,  his  abilities  and  achievements,  and  his 
relation  to  politics.  Through  these  he  became  a 
great  factor  in  the  events  of  his  time.  But  after  all, 
I  must  think  the  true  key  to  his  influence  is  to  be 
sought  and  found  elsewhere.  In  his  incorruptible 


ABRAHAM   LINCOLN.  27 

purity,  his  disinterestedness,  his  inflexible  morality, 
his  fidelity  to  convictions, — in  short,  in  his  moral 
earnestness, — here  were  the  real  hiding-places  of 
his  power.  The  world  is  ever  loyal  to  this  lofty 
type  of  character,  and  whenever  it  recognizes  a  man 
who  never  does  violence  to  his  moral  sense,  it  brings 
him  the  crown  of  its  allegiance  and  homage.  It 
was  Mr.  Lincoln's  sturdy  honesty  that  gave  him 
early  the  soubriquet  of  "  Honest  Abe,"  which  never 
left  him;  and  this  it  was  that  winged  his  speech 
with  celestial  fire,  and  made  him  victor  wherever  he 
moved.  The  moral  bearings  of  every  question  pre- 
sented to  him  were  never  out  of  his  mind.  In  this 
respect,  unlike  most  of  the  world's  great,  "his 
wagon  "  was  always  "  hitched  to  a  star."  In  fine, 
the  elements  of  intellect,  and  will,  and  morality, 
were 

"  So  mix'd  in  him,  that  Nature  might  stand  up, 
And  say  to  all  the  world,  This  was  a  Man !  " 

There  is  one  scene  in  the  life  of  Mr.  Lincoln 
which  has  impressed  my  imagination  beyond  any 
other,  and  I  have  wondered  why  some  masterly 
artist  has  never  yet  seized  and  thrown  it  in  glowing 
colors  and  immortal  beauty  upon  some  great  histor- 
ical canvas.  It  seems  to  me  it  must  have  been  the 
supreme  happiness  of  that  weary  life,  the  moment 
when  he  looked  into  the  dusky  faces  of  his  children 
by  adoption  in  the  streets  of  Richmond,  from  whose 
limbs  the  fetters  had  dropped  at  his  touch,  whom 
his  word  had  lifted  into  the  gladsome  light  of  liber- 
ty,— "sole  passion  of  the  generous  heart,  sole  treas- 
ure worthy  of  being  coveted." 


28  ABRAHAM   LINCOLN. 

O  my  friends,  the  people  did  not  simply  admire 
Abraham  Lincoln  for  his  intellectual  power,  his  force 
of  will,  the  purity  of  his  conscience,  the  rectitude  of 
his  private  and  public  life;  but  they  loved  him  as 
little  children  love  their  father,  because  they  knew 
that  he  "  loved  the  people  in  his  heart  as  a  father 
loves  his  children,  ready  at  all  hours  of  the  day  or 
the  night  to  rise,  to  march,  to  fight,  to  suffer,  to 
conquer  or  to  be  conquered,  to  sacrifice  himself  for 
them  without  reserve,  with  his  fame,  his  fortune, 
his  liberty,  his  blood,  and  his  life." 

Great  men  are  like  mountains,  which  grow  as 
they  recede  from  view.  We  are  even  now,  perhaps, 
too  near  this  extraordinary  man,  as  indeed  we  are 
too  near  the  remarkable  events  in  which  he  lived 
and  fought  and  won  his  battle  of  life,  to  appreciate 
them  in  their  full  significance.  His  fame  in  the 
centuries  to  come  will  rest,  as  that  of  all  great  men 
must  and  does,  upon  certain  acts  that  stand  out  as 
landmarks  in  history.  Few  men  have  been  so  for- 
tunate as  he  is.  So  canonized  is  he  in  the  heart  of 
mankind,  that  envy  and  detraction  fall  harmless  at 
his  feet,  and  stain  not  the  whiteness  of  his  fame. 
There  have  been  many  men  of  daily  beauty  in  life, 
but  few  such  fortunate  enough  to  associate  their 
names  with  great  steps  in  the  progress  of  man — 
fewer  still  to  blend  the  double  glory  of  the  grandest 
public  achievement  with  the  tenderest,  sweetest, 
gentlest,  and  simplest  private  life  and  thought. 

!N"ot  too  soon  for  an  abundant  glory,  but  too  soon 
for  a  loving  and  grateful  country,  his  spirit  was 
"touched  by  the  finger  of  God  and  he  was  not,"  and 


ABRAHAM   LINCOLN.  29 

"  The  great  intelligences  fair 

That  range  above  tliis  mortal  state, 
In  circle  round  the  hlessed  gate, 
Received  and  gave  him  welcome  there." 

As  we  gather  in  spirit  about  his  tomb  to-day,  and 
decorate  with  unfading  amaranth  and  laurel  the 
memory  of  our  great  chief,  how  fitly  may  we  say  of 
him  what  Dixon  said  of  Douglas  Jerrold, — "If  every 
one  who  has  received  a  favor  at  his  hands  .should 
cast  a  flower  upon  his  grave,  a  mountain  of  roses 
would  lie  on  the  great  man's  breast." 

I  know,  friends,  how  little  words  can  do  to  por- 
tray this  august  personage,  and,  toiling  in  vain  to 
express  the  thoughts  of  him  which  you  and  I  feel? 
I  doubt  if  it  were  not  better  after  all,  as  Mr.  Lincoln 
himself  said  of  Washington,  to  "pronounce  his 
name  in  solemn  awe,  and  in  its  naked  and  deathless 
splendor  leave  it  shining  on." 

If,  now,  such  a  character  is  a  priceless  possession 
to  this  people,  how  doubly  fortunate  are  they,  are 
we,  who  stood  by  him  through  life,  and  are  the  in- 
heritors of  his  principles  to-day.  Therefore,  Mr. 
President,  is  there  a  high  propriety  in  this  club  of 
Republicans  associating  themselves  together  about 
the  great  name  of  Abraham  Lincoln,  inspired  as 
they  must  be  by  the  hope  and  the  ambition  to  emu- 
late those  manly  traits  and  those  personal  virtues 
which  so  pervaded  his  nature  as  to  permeate  his 
politics  and  govern  his  life.  He  was  ours  wholly, 
and  this  club,  by  adopting  his  name,  in  effect  de- 
clares him  its  ideal  Republican  and  political  exem- 
plar. In  the  very  name  there  is  fitting  inspiration 


30  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

to  high  and  noble  endeavor,  and  we  should  be  rec- 
reant to  our  opportunities  and  to  our  best  selves — 

"  We  that  have  loved  him  so,  followed  him,  honored  him, 

Lived  in  his  mild  and  magnificent  eye, 
Learned  his  great  language,  caught  his  clear  accents, 
Made  him  our  pattern  to  live,  and  to  die  " — 

I  say,  we  should  be  recreant  Republicans,  if,  under 
the  influence  of  that  transcendent  name  and  char- 
acter, the  very  crown  and  summit  of  American 
manhood,  we  should  not  rise  to  a  lofty  patriotism, 
a  high  conception  of,  and  a  new  consecration  to, 
political  duty,  and  do  our  utmost  to  secure  the  tri- 
umph of  his  principles,  and  to  lift  our  politics  up  to 
that  high  standard  of  honor  and  dignity  which 
guided  the  steps  of  the  great  man  whose  birthday 
we  now  celebrate,  and  which  is  commemorated 
throughout  the  civilized  world  as  that  of  a  Patriot, 
Statesman,  Hero,  and  supreme  Martyr  to  Liberty. 


JOHN   P.  HALE. 


MR.  PRESIDENT  AND  FELLOW  CITIZENS  :  When 
the  illusions  of  military  glory,  and  the  delirious 
dream  of  a  universal  supremacy,  had  given  way  to 
the  sober  reflections  of  the  philosopher  and  states- 
man, the  august  exile  of  St.  Helena  said :  "I 
wanted  no  statues,  for  I  knew  that  there  was  no 
safety  in  receiving  them  at  any  other  hands  than 
those  of  posterity."  In  a  like  spirit.  Burke  also 
deprecated  a  statue  in  his  life-time,  saying  that 
such  honors  belong  exclusively  to  the  tomb,  and 
that,  frequently,  such  is  human  inconstancy,  the 
same  hands  which  erect  pull  them  down.  Thus 
these  great  men,  both  with  characteristic  penetra- 
tion and  discernment,  touched  upon  the  profound 
truth  that  every  man's  work  is  to  be  tested  by 
time.  That  is  the  crucible  through  which  all  ser- 
vice is  to  be  passed  before  it  receives  its  final  stamp 
and  authentication.  But  time  is  a  factor  whose 
relations  to  history  are  readjusted.  What  required 
an  age  in  an  earlier  day  is  now  accomplished  in  a 
generation,  by  the  diffusion  of  knowledge,  the 
rapid  circulation  of  intelligence,  the  electric  rapid- 
ity of  all  the  interchanges  of  thought  and  sentiment. 
Men  do  not  wait  for  ages  to  be  appreciated.  By 
these  modern  instruments  of  precision,  in  the  quick- 
ening of  human  sympathies,  and  the  broadening  of 


32  JOHN  P.   HALE. 

intellectual  horizons,  we  measure  the  mental  and 
moral  altitude  of  our  great  actors,  and  determine 
their  places  in  the  firmament  with  unerring  accu- 
racy, after  only  that  brief  lapse  of  time  which  suf- 
fices for  the  subsidence  of  the  passions  and  pertur- 
bations of  contemporary  judgment.  And  so,  before 
a  generation  has  passed  since  a  great  man  was 
gathered  to  his  rest,  the  people  of  his  state  meet, 
in  unbroken  accord,  to  do  him  honor  by  raising 
here  a  statue  to  his  memory  in  the  public  grounds 
of  the  commonwealth,  under  the  shadow  of  its  capi- 
tol,  whose  arches  have  so  often  resounded  with  the 
echoes  of  his  eloquence. 

On  the  31st  day  of  March,  1806,  New  Hamp- 
shire was  enriched  with  one  of  those  rare  gifts, 
which,  bestowed  upon  her  in  unusual  plenitude, 
have  given  her  a  distinction  beyond  most  other 
states,  as  the  mother  of  great  men.  On  that  day 
JOHN  PARKER  HALE  was  born  in  Rochester,  of  a 
father  bearing  the  same  name,  a  lawyer  of  brilliant 
promise,  and  a  mother  who  was  the  daughter  of 
William  O'Brien,  an  Irish  exile,  who  distinguished 
himself  by  the  daring  feat  of  capturing  the  first 
armed  British  vessel  in  the  War  of  the  Revolu- 
tion and  died  a  prisoner  of  war  at  the  early  age  of 
twenty-three.  He  was  of  the  heroic  stock  which 
gave  birth  to  William  Smith  O'Brien.  It  is  hardly 
more  than  idle  speculation  to  fancy  that  we  always 
find  in  race  or  pedigree  the  source  of  special  traits 
in  a  great  character ;  but  those  who  are  curious  to 
trace  the  characteristics  of  genius  back  to  ances- 
tral blood,  have  readily  found  Mr.  Hale's  practical 
turn  of  mind,  sound  sense,  coolness  and  phlegm  in 


JOHN   P.    HALE.  33 

his  sturdy  Anglo-Saxon  father,  and  the  wit  and 
humor,  warmth  and  rhetorical  fervor  which  marked 
his  speech  and  temperament,  in  his  mother's  Celtic 
ancestors.  Mr.  Hale's  father  died  in  1819  at  the 
early  age  of  forty-four,  leaving  an  honorable  name, 
but  to  his  mother  little  of  this  world's  goods  where- 
with to  care  for  a  numerous  family  of  children,  of 
whom  Mr.  Hale  was  the  second,  and  but  thirteen 
years  of  age.  But  she  was  equal  to  the  duty 
imposed  upon  her.  She  nurtured  her  brood  with 
singular  care  and  industry,  and  had  the  satisfaction 
of  living  to  see  her  son  enter  upon  a  career  of 
assured  professional  success,  and  also  into  the 
political  life  which  was  afterwards  so  distinguished. 
She  died  in  1832  at  the  age  of  fifty-two  years. 
Through  all  his  life  Mr  Hale  loved  and  honored 
this  noble  mother  with  a  rare  devotion,  serving  her 
with  a  knightly  loyalty  in  his  youth,  and  in  his  days 
of  renown,  when  he  was  an  illustrious  United  States 
senator  and  the  peer  of  any  living  American,  he 
made  a  most  touching  allusion  to  her  in  the  debate 
upon  Gen.  Cass's  resolution  of  sympathy  with  the 
exiled  Irish  patriots.  Said  he,  "  Sir,  my  mother, 
many  years  dead,  was  the  only  child  of  an  Irish 
exile.  His  name  was  O'Brien,  and  I  should  feel, 
if  in  this  place,  or  in  any  place,  whenever  or  wher- 
ever a  word  of  sympathy  is  to  be  expressed  for  an 
Irish  exile  and  an  O'Brien,  that  I  should  be  false 
to  every  pulsation  of  my  heart,  to  every  drop  of 
blood  that  flows  in  these  veins,  and  to  that  which 
no  man  can  be  false  to,  a  deceased  mother,  if  I  did 
not  express  it.  No,  sir,  let  whatever  consequences, 
personal  or  political,  stand  in  the  way,  so  long  as 


34  JOHN   P.    HALE. 

the  blood  of  my  mother  flows  in  my  veins,  and  so 
long  as  I  remember  who  I  am,  and  what  I  am, 
whatever  words  of  sympathy,  of  counsel,  or  of 
encouragement  an  Irish  exile  can  have,  that  he  shall 
have  from  me." 

But   few  of  the   contemporaries    of  Mr.    Hale's 
youth    survive,  and   it  is    difficult  to   present  any 
but  an  imperfect  record  of  the  circumstances  amid 
which  he  reached  maturity,  the  processes  by  which 
he  was  prepared  for    his  destined  work,  and   the 
forces  which  determined  the  course  and  complex- 
ion of  his  career.     But  it  is  certain  that  he  was  a 
bright,  active,  quick,  witty,  kind,  generous,  cour- 
ageous, and  helpful  boy.     His  mother's  exertions 
kept  him  at  school,  and  he  was  enabled  at  an  early 
age  to  get  a  term  or  two  of  preparatory  study  at 
Exeter  under  Principal  Abbot,  who  boasted  some 
years   after   that   he   had   five   of  his  boys  in  the 
United   States    senate,   "  and    pretty   good    boys, 
too," — Webster,  Cass,  Hale,  Dix,  and  Felch.     He 
entered  Bowdoin  college  in  1823,  and  was  there  a 
contemporary     and    friend    of    Franklin    Pierce, 
Nathaniel    Hawthorne,   and    other    distinguished 
men.     He    was   graduated   there  in  1827,  with    a 
high  reputation  for   general   ability  and   off-hand 
oratorical  power.     He  read  law  at  Rochester  and 
at  Dover,  where  he  finished  his  legal  studies  under 
the  tuition  of  the  late  Daniel  M.  Christie,  for  many 
years   the   honored   head   of  the  ~New  Hampshire 
bar.     As  a  law  student  he  displayed  all  his  char- 
acteristic   traits    of  quickness,    aptitude,   ease   of 
acquisition,  and  tenacity  of  memory ;  so  that  both 
his   instructors,  Mr.  Woodman   and  Mr.  Christie, 


JOHN   P.   HALE.  35 

formed  the  highest  hopes  of  him,  and  confidently 
predicted  his  future  eminence.  To  all  who  knew 
him  it  was  evident  that  he  was  fitted  to  play  a 
great  part  in  the  world,  and  was  the  possessor  of 
powers  of  which  his  country  had  a  right  to  demand 
an  account.  From  his  earliest- youth  he  manifested 
the  activity  of  his  intellect,  and  read  with  interest 
the  classics  of  our  literature,  and  especially  the 
great  orators  of  ancient  and  modern  times.  Admit- 
ted to  the  bar  and  opening  an  office  at  Dover  in 
1830,  he  at  once  took  high  rank  in  the  profession. 
His  entrance  into  practice  realized  the  highest 
hopes  of  his  friends  ;  he  soon  gained  a  large  client- 
age, and  within  a  few  years  became  known  as  one 
of  the  most  astute  lawyers  and  eloquent  advocates 
at  the  New  Hampshire  bar.  He  had  consummate 
skill  and  tact  in  handling  witnesses,  rare  keenness  in 
discerning  the  points  at  issue  and  adroitness  in 
meeting  them,  and  extraordinary  power  before 
juries  in  both  criminal  and  civil  cases.  In  the  ear- 
lier years  of  his  practice  he  was  often  the  leading 
counsel  against  Mr.  Christie  and  others  not  less 
distinguished,  and  his  appeals  to  the  jury  gave  full 
scope  to  his  unrivalled  wit  and  humor,  his  indigna- 
tion against  wrong,  and  pathos  in  defence  of  the 
rights  of  humanity. 

As  a  lawyer,  Mr.  Hale  from  the  outset  mani- 
fested the  democratic  tendencies  of  his  mind  and 
character.  He  believed  in  the  people,  and  was 
jealous  of  every  encroachment  upon  popular  rights. 
Before  his  entrance  upon  the  national  arena  he 
made  a  stand  in  the  supreme  court  of  New  Hamp- 
shire for  the  right  of  the  jury  to  be  judges  of  the 


36  JOHN    P.    HALE. 

law  as  well  as  the  facts  in  criminal  cases,  and  had  a 
warm  controversy  on  the  subject  with  the  late 
Chief-Justice  Joel  Parker.  He  published  a  pam- 
phlet on  the  question  which  was  a  remarkable  pro- 
duction, showing  great  research  and  polemical 
skill,  and  it  is  scarcely  extravagant  to  style  it  a 
monument  to  his  acquirements  as  a  lawyer.  It 
contains  well-nigh  all  the  learning  on  a  question  of 
the  deepest  importance  in  its  day,  which  has  been 
substantially  settled  at  last  by  the  ameliorations  of 
the  criminal  law,  the  progress  of  society,  and  the 
growth  of  the  institutions  of  liberty.  Although 
Mr.  Hale  was  not  distinguished  for  recondite  learn- 
ing, this  publication  exhibited  too  complete  a 
mastery  of  authorities  to  be  dashed  off  at  a  sitting, 
too  profound  an  argument  to  have  been  prepared 
in  a  day.  This  debate  is  chiefly  interesting  today 
as  proof  that  Mr.  Hale  had  unquestionably  devoted 
time  in  his  early  years  to  the  study  of  the  great 
books  of  the  common  law,  to  the  history  and 
development  of  English  liberty,  and  was  deeply 
grounded  in  its  leading  principles.  Judge  Parker 
replied  through  the  ^ew  Hampshire  Reports  in 
Peirce  et  al.  v.  State,  13  !N".  H.  536.  An  examina- 
tion of  these  reports  from  Vol.  6  to  17,  inclusive, 
will  show  the  extent  and  importance  of  Mr.  Hale's 
law  practice,  and  that  he  had  every  prospect  of  a 
great  legal  career. 

Mr.  Hale  exhibited  an  early  bias  towards  poli- 
tics and  the  consideration  of  public  affairs.  With 
his  ardent  nature,  popular  sympathies,  and  devo- 
tion to  free  principles,  it  is  not  strange  that  he  had 
embraced  the  doctrines  of  that  democracy  which 


JOHN    P.    HALK.  37 

was  then  in  the  ascendant  in  the  young  republic'. 
In  1832  he  was  elected  to  the  legislature  011  a 
workingman's  ticket,  an  incident  thus  early  indica- 
tive of  his  sympathetic  relation  with  humanity,  and 
a  presage  of  his  future  career  as  a  champion  of 
popular  rights.  He  soon  after  became  fully  iden- 
tified with  the  Democratic  party,  and  in  1834, 
when  only  twenty-eight  years  of  age,  he  was  ap- 
pointed by  President  Jackson  United  States  dis- 
trict attorney,  which  position  he  held  with  distinc- 
tion till  he  was  removed  for  political  reasons  by 
the  Whig  administration  in  1841.  During  this 
time  Mr.  Hale  had  developed  very  rapidly  as  a 
lawyer  and  orator,  and  in  1843  he  was  nominated 
for  congress  by  the  Democratic  party,  and  elected 
on  a  general  ticket  with  Edmund  Burke,  John  R. 
Reding,  and  Moses  Norris. 

It  was  the  fortune  of  Mr.  Hale  to  come  upon  the 
stage  of  action  at  a  time  of  intellectual  and  moral 
ferment  in  !N'ew  England, — a  time  of  daring  spec- 
ulations, when  enthusiasms  were  aroused,  and  so- 
ciety, though  not  recreated  by  transcendentalism 
and  other  more  or  less  Utopian  schemes,  yet  re- 
ceived a  mighty  uplifting,  which  gave  free  scope 
to  the  most  adventurous  thought  and  philanthropy. 
His  youth  and  early  manhood  were  coincident  with 
this  period  of  moral  and  intellectual  upheaval  and 
awakening  on  all  subjects  ;  and  if  such  a  man,  by 
virtue  of  his  environment  and  the  indifference  of 
the  public  sentiment  in  which  he  was  reared,  was 
as  yet  callous  to  the  wrong  and  the  danger  of 
American  slavery,  it  was  clear  he  could  not  so 
remain.  It  is  impossible  to  conceive  that  a  mind 


38  JOHN   P.    HALE. 

so  comprehensive,  a  nature  so  fine  and  humane,  a 
temper  so  bold,  a  courage  so  superb  and  complete, 
should  not  be  arrested  by  a  portent  so  terrible  then 
rising  into  domination  of  the  republic,  and  against 
which  every  generous  aspiration  of  !New  England 
was  rising  in  insurrection.  Since,  by  his  own  con- 
fession, he  had  encouraged  a  rude  interruption  of 
an  anti-slavery  meeting  in  Dover  in  1835,  a  perse- 
cution of  abolitionists  in  which  he  said  he  thought 
he  was  doing  God  service,  as  Paul  did  before  his 
conversion  in  persecuting  the  Christians,  Mr.  Hale 
had  been  a  watchful  observer  of  the  course  of 
events  and  ideas,  and  when  he  was  elected  to  con- 
gress in  1843,  it  was  known  that  he  would  vote  for 
the  abrogation  of  the  twenty-first  rule,  whereby 
congress,  at  the  dictation  of  the  slave  power,  con- 
temptuously refused  to  receive  anti-slavery  peti- 
tions. He  had  avowed  this  purpose,  and  was 
elected  with  that  understanding ;  and  when  the 
question  came  forward  in  that  congress,  he,  with 
Hannibal  Hamlin  of  Maine,  came  to  the  support  of 
Mr.  Adams,  and  valiantly  fought  to  abrogate  the 
rule.  The  attempt  was  not  then  successful,  but  at 
the  next  session  the  "  old  man  eloquent "  burst 
through  the  gag  rule  in  triumph. 

The  slavery  of  the  negro  race  in  the  United 
States  is  one  of  the  crudest  and  bloodiest  passages 
in  human  history.  In  the  same  year  that  the  May- 
flower crossed  the  ocean,  bearing  to  the  western 
continent  the  Pilgrim  fathers,  another  ship  buffeted 
the  same  sea,  brought  with  her  a  cargo  of  nineteen 
slaves,  and  landed  them  at  Jamestown  in  Yirginia. 
That  was  the  fatal  seed  of  American  slavery,  the 


JOHN   P.   HALE.  39 

upas  tree  which  struck  deep  its  poisonous  root,  and 
threatened  so  long  to  overshadow  the  whole  land. 
Mr.  Sunnier  well  said  that  in  the  hold  of  these  two 
ships  were  concealed  the  germs  of  the  War  of  the 
Rebellion.  As  time  passed  on,  negroes  were  forced 
into  the  country  by  British  greed,  and  the  system 
made  its  way  into  all  the  colonies.  But  the  con- 
science of  Puritanism  never  gave  up  its  antagonism 
to  the  idea  that  "man  could  hold  property  in  man," 
and  in  time  the  New  England  colonies  one  by  one 
sloughed  it  oft'. 

During  the  War  of  Independence,  however, 
nearly  all  the  colonies  held  slaves,  though  the  sys- 
tem was  far  stronger  in  the  South  than  in  the 
North.  But  the  Revolutionary  struggle  itself 
gave  rise  to  certain  phrases  since  called  "  glittering 
generalities  of  natural  right,"  which  in  themselves 
were  held  to  bar  a  continuance  of  the  institution. 
Before  the  adoption  of  the  constitution  a  majority 
of  the  states  had  inhibited  the  further  introduction 
of  slaves,  and  almost  everywhere,  notably  in  "Vir- 
ginia under  the  influence  of  Jefferson  and  Madison, 
the  current  of  opinion  and  of  political  action  was 
against  slavery.  That  it  was  considered  a  mere 
temporary  condition  by  our  fathers,  to  be  very 
soon  eliminated  and  cast  off,  is  beyond  question. 
It  was  the  fortune  of  Mr.  Hale  to  demonstrate  that 
on  repeated  occasions  in  his  political  life.  The 
views  of  the  makers  of  the  constitution  are  clearly 
shown  by  the  great  ordinance  of  1787,  passed  by 
the  congress  of  the  confederation,  which  dedicated 
the  Northwest  to  freedom  forever  by  these  immor- 
tal words :  "  There  shall  be  neither  slavery  nor 


40  JOHN   P.    HALE. 

involuntary  servitude  in  the  said  territory,  other- 
wise than  in  the  punishment  of  crimes  whereof  the 
party  shall  have  been  duly  convicted." 

Then  came  the  constitution  itself,  in  which  the 
founders  would  acknowledge  the  existence  of 
slavery  in  the  Union  by  an  euphemism  only,  by 
the  prohibition  of  the  slave  trade  after  1808,  and 
by  guaranties  looking  to  the  ultimate  extinction  of 
the  system  itself.  One  of  the  first  acts  of  congress 
under  the  constitution  was  to  reenact  the  ordinance 
of  Jefferson  and  Dane  by  extending  its  provisions 
to  new  territory  ceded  to  the  Union.  But  now, 
soon  after  the  constitution  was  formed,  these  strong 
tendencies  towards  emancipation  and  the  restriction 
of  slavery  began  to  be  reversed.  In  the  Union  as 
first  formed,  only  a  small  portion,  a  little  strip  on 
the  southern  Atlantic  slope,  was  adapted  to  the 
tropical  productions  of  rice  and  cotton.  But  now 
the  Anglo-Saxon  "  hunger  for  the  horizon  "  began 
to  operate.  The  retrocession  of  Louisiana  to  France 
in  1800,  and  its  purchase  by  the  United  States  from 
JsTapoleon  in  1803,  and  the  purchase  of  Florida  from 
Spain  in  1819,  threw  open  a  vast  acreage  of  new 
lands,  with  a  deep  and  fertile  soil,  under  a  burning 
sun,  fitted  superbly  for  the  growth  of  cotton  and 
the  sugar  cane  under  conditions  to  which  the  Cau- 
casian constitution  was  not  adapted.  But  the  most 
potent  factor  was  the  simple  invention  of  the  cot- 
ton gin  by  Eli  Whitney  in  1793,  which,  concur- 
ring with  other  mechanical  inventions  of  this  time, 
changed  the  whole  aspect  of  the  slavery  question 
in  the  cotton  growing  states. 

Previous  to  1790  no  cotton  had  been  exported 


JOHN   P.   HALE.  41 

from  America.  These  events  stimulated  the  culti- 
vation of  cotton,  opened  for  it  a  foreign  market, 
enhanced  the  commercial  value  of  the  slave,  and 
tightened  his  chains.  It  is  noteworthy  how  the 
excess  of  land  in  the  extreme  South  fitted  into  the 
excess  of  labor  in  the  border  states,  and  gave  to 
both  a  common  and  reciprocal  interest  in  "  the  pe- 
culiar institution."  The  Louisiana  purchase  added 
more  land  to  the  Union  than  we  already  had.  This 
acquisition  of  territory  thus  developed  the  inter- 
state slave  trade,  and  Virginia  became  the  breed- 
ing ground  of  a  race  of  chattel  laborers,  whose 
wrongs  were  depicted  in  such  lurid  c6lors  and  with 
such  lightning  strokes  of  genius  in  Uncle  Tom's 
Cabin.  Thus  the  institution  became  an  iniquitous 
and  guilty  traffic,  so  far  out-heroding  any  former 
system  of  helotism  in  human  history  as  to  call  down 
upon  itself  the  execration  of  man  and  the  vengeance 
of  heaven.  The  South  became  more  and  more 
enamored  of  a  system  so  diabolically  profitable, 
and,  elated  by  holding  the  fancied  monopoly  of  the 
worM's  greatest  staple,  boldly  proclaimed  that  cot- 
ton was  king, — that  cotton  could  only  be  produced 
by  slave  labor,  and  that  therefore  slavery  should  be 
a  permanent  institution,  to  be  nursed,  protected, 
preserved,  extended,  and  made  the  corner  stone 
and  vital  principle  of  their  civilization.  From  that 
time  the  North  and  South  grew  wider  and  wider 
apart,  and  the  rival  systems  of  freedom  and  slavery 
contended  fiercely  for  the  mastery  in  the  great 
masses  of  territory  that  had  been  successively 
added  to  the  Union.  Happily,  the  great  ordinance 
of  1787,  a  state  paper  deserving  to  take  rank  with 


42  JOHN   P.   HALE. 

the  Declaration  of  Independence,  which  Lord 
Brougham  said  should,  always  hang  in  the  cab- 
inet of  kings,  had  predestined  to  freedom  a  vast 
region,  a  virgin  soil  where  no  prior  rights  had 
taken  root  and  no  tares  been  sown,  and  to  its  effi- 
cacy we  are  indebted  for  the  great  free  common- 
wealths of  Ohio,  Indiana,  Illinois,  Michigan,  Wis- 
consin, and  Minnesota,  stretching  from  the  Ohio  to 
the  sources  of  the  Mississippi, — though  slavery  did 
not  give  them  up  even  without  a  further  struggle. 
The  South,  with  a  bad  faith  which  became  charac- 
teristic, demanded  the  abrogation  of  the  ordinance, 
and  an  agitation  began  to  be  manifested  whose 
dull  and  distant  rumblings,  forerunners  of  volcanic 
outbreaks,  could  be  heard  ever  and  anon  during 
the  next  thirty  years.  But,  over  the  Louisiana 
purchase  of  1803,  that  vast  region  extending  from 
the  Gulf  of  Mexico  to  the  headwaters  of  the  Miss- 
ouri, the  old  empires  of  Spain  and  France  had 
legalized  slavery,  and  consequently  the  institution 
was  already  planted  there  beyond  dispute.  Louisi- 
ana and  Arkansas  were  taken  into  the  Union  as 
slave  states,  but  at  a  little  later  day,  when  Missouri 
applied  for  admission  in  1818,  the  friends  of  free- 
dom, then  in  control  of  the  house  of  representa- 
tives, demanded  the  exclusion  of  slavery.  There- 
upon ensued  a  memorable  struggle  lasting  two 
years,  but  finally  settled  by  the  Missouri  compro- 
mise passed  in  1820,  whereby  Missouri  was  admit- 
ted with  the  slavery  that  has  cursed  and  hampered 
her  ever  since,  and  the  ^orth  in  lieu  of  it  got  the 
solemn  agreement  of  the  South  for  the  reversion  of 
freedom  in  the  part  of  the  territory  not  yet  organ- 


JOHN   P.    HALE.  43 

ized,  in  the  following1  words  :  "And  be  it  further 
enacted,  that  in  all  that  territory  ceded  by  France 
to  the  United  States  under  the  name  of  Louisiana, 
which  lies  north  of  36°  30'  north  latitude,  excepting 
only  such  part  thereof  as  is  included  within  the 
limits  of  the  state  contemplated  by  this  act,  slavery 
and  involuntary  servitude,  otherwise  than  in  pun- 
ishment of  crime  whereof  the  party  shall  have  been 
duly  convicted,  shall  be  and  is  forever  prohibited." 
Florida  was  then  admitted  in  1821,  and  once  more 
the  country  breathed  freely,  and  peace  for  the 
future  was  supposed  to  be  secure.  But  the  tiger 
craving  of  the  South  for  conquest  and  power  had 
been  whetted,  and  its  aggressive  and  Philistine 
character  appeared  ever  and  anon,  in  the  discus- 
sions upon  the  tariff,  the  public  lands,  the  right  of 
petition,  the  right  of  interference  with  the  mails  in 
search  of  "  incendiary  publications,"  the  Creek  and 
Seminole  War,  and  otherwise,  that  came  up  in  the 
following  twenty  years.  That  at  the  end  slavery 
had  made  a  distinct  advance  upon  freedom,  enlarg- 
ing its  pretensions,  aggrandizing  itself  anew  at 
every  step,  and  more  and  more  completely  subju- 
gating the  public  opinion  of  the  North  to  its  uses, 
is  a  truth  abundantly  evidenced  by  the  history  of 
the  time.  In  1832  Mr.  Calhoun  had  organized  the 
slave  power,  and  brought  it  forward  upon  the  scene 
with  a  distinct  purpose  and  programme  of  its  own; 
and,  less  than  twenty-five  years  after  the  Missouri 
compromise,  that  power,  now  become  a  propaganda 
of  the  most  ruthless  character,  and,  holding  entire 
control  of  the  federal  government,  had  adroitly  and 
criminally  plotted  and  brought  about  the  severance 


44  JOHN   P.   HALE. 

of  Texas  from  Mexico,  overrun  and  revolutionized 
it,  and  now  proposed  to  annex  it  to  the  slave  inter- 
est in  the  Union,  and  make  its  preponderance  final 
and  decisive.  This  had  been  notoriously  done  in 
the  interest  of  slave  extension.  These  encroach- 
ments of  the  South  upon  freedom  were  well  calcu- 
lated to  arouse  the  latent  and  slowly-growing  anti- 
slavery  sentiments  of  the  North,  and,  in  fact, 
brought  a  crisis  which  enlisted  the  energies  of 
many  noble  souls. 

At  this  juncture  John  P.  Hale  took  his  seat  in 
the  national  house  of  representatives — into  this 
seething  caldron  of  slavery  agitation  his  political 
life  was  cast.  He  had  inherited  no  anti-slavery 
principles — such  as  he  had  were  the  fruit  of  a 
steady  growth  of  heart  and  brain.  He  had  been 
awakened  by  the  trend  of  events  and  ideas  between 
the  Storrs  meeting  in  the  Dover  church  and  1843, 
and  he  found  his  conscience  and  his  whole  better 
nature  insurgent  against  the  slave  system.  Per- 
haps no  man  ever  entered  congress  with  more 
flattering  prospects.  His  reputation  had  preceded 
him,  and  his  gifts  as  an  orator  gave  him  an  imme- 
diate hearing  in  the  house.  In  the  opening  days 
of  the  session  he  entered  freely  into  the  debates, 
taking  a  very  prominent  stand  as  an  advocate  of 
Democratic  principles,  and  attracting  wide  and 
admiring  attention  by  his  oratorical  power.  There 
was  the  fire  of  a  passionate  sincerity  in  his  eloquent 
improvisations  ;  and  I  well  remember  the  contem- 
porary characterizations  of  him  as  the  "  Democratic 
Boanerges,"  the  "  Granite  State  cataract,"  and 
other  like  expressions.  He  proposed  measures  of 


.JOHN    P.    HALE.  45 

retrenchment  in  regard  to  West  Point,  the  army, 
and  the  navy,  and  advocated  a  reduction  in  postage 
rates,  and  the  abolition  of  corporal  punishment  in 
the  army.  On  the  3d  of  June,  1844,  he  set  in 
motion  a  great  movement  for  humanity  by  moving 
an  amendment  to  the  naval  appropriation  bill,  abol- 
ishing flogging  in  the  navy,  and  his  eloquence 
carried  it  in  the  house,  but  it  was  lost  in  the  senate. 
Then  came  the  act  of  Mr.  Hale  which  may  fairly 
be  regarded  as  the  initial  point  of  his  great  career 
upon  those  lines  which  he  afterwards  followed  with 
such  devoted  singleness  of  heart  and  purpose.  The 
annexation  of  Texas  was  the  pet  scheme  of  Presi- 
dent Tyler,  but  was  supported  zealously  by  the 
extreme  pro-slavery  party  at  the  South  with  Mr. 
Calhoun  at  their  head.  He  was  their  leading  intel- 
lect, and  it  was  soon  seen  to  be  a  scheme  in  the 
direct  and  exclusive  interest  of  slavery  extension. 
Accordingly,  as  its  character  unfolded,  the  sponta- 
neous feeling  and  expression  of  the  North  were 
opposed  to  it.  The  project  of  slavery  extension 
was  opposed  by  all  the  accredited  organs  of  Demo- 
cratic party  opinion  in  New  Hampshire,  alike  by 
the  leaders,  the  press,  and  the  masses  of  the  party 
itself.  It  was  denounced  by  the  press  in  unmeas- 
ured terms  as  a  design  "  black  as  ink  and  bitter  as 
hell."  This  was  the  undoubted  attitude  of  the 
Democratic  party  of  New  Hampshire  in  1843  and 
1844.  But  the  South  had  obtained  complete  con- 
trol of  the  national  councils  and  patronage,  and  the 
word  had  gone  forth  that  Texas  was  to  be  annexed 
to  the  Union  for  the  aggrandizement  of  slavery? 
and  such  was  the  power  of  the  South  over  the 


4H  JOHN   P.    HALE. 

national  convention  that  Mr.  Van  Buren,  for  whom 
the  Democracy  of  New  Hampshire  had  unanimously 
instructed  their  delegates,  was  defrauded  of  the 
presidential  nomination  on  account  of  his  opposi- 
tion to  the  annexation  of  Texas,  and  Mr.  Polk 
nominated  because  he  favored  the  scheme.  There- 
fore, to  keep  in  line  with,  or  rather  to  obey  the 
behests  of,  the  Southern  Democracy,  the  Democratic 
newspapers  and  public  men  of  New  Hampshire 
had  to  change  front,  and  to  eat  their  own  brave 
words  of  resistance  to  that  domination.  In  fact, 
the  annexation  of  Texas  had  been  first  hinted  at, 
then  timidly  suggested,  and  at  length  boldly 
avowed  as  the  Democratic  policy  in  the  teeth  of  all 
the  anti-slavery  feeling  of  the  Northern  states ; 
and  not  only  this,  but  as  a  treaty  of  annexation, 
which  the  whole  North  believed  to  be  the  only  con- 
stitutional way  of  acquiring  foreign  territory,  could 
not  be  carried  through  the  senate,  it  was  resolved 
by  an  unscrupulous  and  domineering  slave  party  to 
defy  all  constitutional  restraints,  and  annex  Texas 
by  joint  resolution.  So  complete  was  the  domina- 
tion of  Southern  men  and  interests  over  the  Demo- 
cratic party  of  the  North  that  at  their  dictation  the 
New  Hampshire  Democracy  reversed  its  course, 
and  the  legislature  in  December,  1844,  passed  reso- 
lutions instructing  the  senators  and  representatives 
in  congress  to  vote  for  the  annexation  of  Texas. 
It  was  true  that  Mr.  Hale  had  powerfully  and  effec- 
tively advocated  the  election  of  Mr.  Polk,  who  was 
known  to  be  in  favor  of  annexation,  but  he  had  done 
so,  undoubtedly,  with  the  understanding  that 
annexation  was  to  be  effected,  if  at  all,  by  constitu- 


JOHN   P.  HALE.  47 

tional  methods,  by  the  treaty-making  power  which 
all  the  great- organs  of  constitutional  interpretation 
had  insisted  upon,  and  also  that  as  many  or  more 
free  than  slave  states  were  to  be  added  to  the 
Union,  and  thus  the  area  of  freedom  was  to  be 
extended  at  least  equally  with  that  of  slavery. 
This  was  the  language  of  Northern  speakers,  and 
the  Democratic  press,  headed  by  the  Democratic 
Review,  all  through  the  campaign.  This  was  Mr. 
Clay's  opinion,  and  some  Southern  men  opposed 
the  annexation  upon  the  very  ground  "  that  Texas 
as  an  undivided  slave  country,  though  a  foreign 
one,  was  preferable  to  Texas  carved  up  into  an 
equal  number  of  slaveholding  and  non-slave- 
holding  states."  The  New  Hampshire  legislature 
in  these  very  resolutions  of  instruction  expressed 
the  belief  that  the  annexation  of  Texas  would  add 
more  free  than  slave  states  to  the  Union.  But 
Mr.  Polk  had  been  elected,  and  the  South  pro- 
ceeded at  once  to  pluck  the  spoils  of  victory. 
Before  the  inauguration  so  eager  were  they  for  the 
consummation  of  the  scheme  that  at  the  session 
commencing  in  December,  1844,  the  Texas  project 
was  brought  forward.  All  the  pent-up  fires  of 
Northern  opposition  to  slavery  extension  and 
aggrandizement  were  fanned  into  a  flame,  and  a 
fierce  contention  arose.  Mr.  Hale,  evidently  with 
no  idea  of  breaking  with  his  party,  instead  of  bend- 
ing to  the  dictation  of  the  Southern  leaders,  pro- 
ceeded simply  to  carry  out  the  opinions  he  was 
known  to  entertain,  which  he  had  avowed  in  New 
Hampshire,  which  he  had  expressed  by  his  action 
in  vindication  of  the  right  of  petition,  and  in  which 


48  JOHN    P.    HALE. 

* 

he  had  every  reason  to  suppose  he  would  be  sus- 
tained by  his  Democratic  constituents  at  home.  He 
accordingly  moved  a  suspension  of  the  rules  in 
order  to  move  to  divide  Texas  into  two  parts,  in 
one  of  which  slavery  should  be  forever  prohibited  ; 
but  though  his  motion  was  carried  by  a  majority, 
it  failed  for  want  of  a  two-thirds  vote.  This,  and 
the  scornful  defeat  of  every  movement  looking  to  a 
division  of  Texas  between  freedom  and  slavery, 
showed  only  too  clearly  the  animus  of  the  whole 
scheme.  In  fact,  if  Texas,  or  any  part  of  it,  had 
been  let  in  with  a  constitution  prohibiting  slavery, 
subsequent  proceedings  would  have  interested  its 
advocates  no  more. 

Mr.  Hale  then  addressed  to  his  constituents,  "  the 
Democratic  Republican  electors  of  New  Hamp- 
shire," the  famous  letter  dated  July  7,  1845,  in 
which  he  took  ground  against  the  Texas  scheme, 
exposing  its  character  in  no  measured  terms,  as 
purely  in  the  interest  of  slave  extension.  He 
declared  his  unalterable  opposition  to  the  annexa- 
tion by  congress  of  a  foreign  nation  for  the  avowed 
purpose  of  extending  and  perpetuating  slavery. 
He  stigmatized  the  reasons  given  by  its  advocates 
in  its  behalf  as  "  eminently  calculated  to  provoke 
the  scorn  of  earth  and  the  judgment  of  heaven," 
and  thus  appealed  to  the  patriotic  traditions  of  one 
of  the  most  patriotic  of  the  "  old  thirteen": — "When 
our  forefathers  bade  a  last  farewell  to  the  homes  of 
their  childhood,  the  graves  of  their  fathers,  and  the 
temples  of  their  God,  and  ventured  upon  all  the 
desperate  contingencies  of  wintry  seas  and  a  sav- 
age coast,  that  they  might  in  strong  faith  and 


JOHN   P.    HALE.  49 

ardent  hope  lay  deep  the  foundations  of  the  temple 
of  liberty,  their  faith  would  have  become  scepticism, 
and  their  hope  despair,  could  they  have  foreseen 
that  the  day  would  ever  arrive  when  their  degener- 
ate sons  should  be  found  seeking  to  extend  their 
boundaries  and  their  government,  not  for  the  pur- 
pose of  promoting  freedom,  but  sustaining  slavery." 
This  letter  for  a  moment  gave  pause  to  political 
movements  in  New  Hampshire,  but  was  very  soon 
met  by  a  storm  of  denunciation  from  the  party 
leaders.  The  decree  went  forth  that  Mr.  Hale  was 
to  be  thrown  overboard  for  his  contumacy,  and  at 
a  convention  of  the  party  called  for  the  purpose 
February  12,  1845,  his  nomination  was  rescinded, 
his  name  struck  from  the  ticket,  and  another  sub- 
stituted. But  there  was  a  public  conscience  that 
only  needed  to  be  aroused,  and  the  letter  had  struck 
a  chord  that  was  only  waiting  to  be  touched  by  the 
hand  of  a  master.  Immediately  there  were  signs 
of  a  revolt  in  the  Democratic  party  against  this 
despotic  sway  at  the  dictation  of  the  slave  power, 
and  under  the  lead  of  Amos  Tuck  and  John  L. 
Hayes  a  small  party  styling  themselves  Independ- 
ent Democrats  rallied  about  the  standard  of  Mr. 
Hale.  This  was  the  first  meeting  in  a  state  where 
the  party  rule  was  absolute — which  had  *been  under 
Democratic  control  since  1829,  and  had  given  Mr. 
Polk  6,000  majority.  Meanwhile,  although  faithful 
sentinels  on  the  watch  towers  of  freedom  fore- 
warned the  North  of  the  direful  consequences  of 
annexation,  it  was  carried  in  the  house  by  134  to 
77,  showing  the  gains  slavery  had  made,  John  P. 
Hale  and  Hannibal  Hamlin  alone  among  the  North- 


50  JOHN   P.   HALE. 

ern  Democracy  refusing  to  bow  the  knee  at  the 
party  behest.  Thus  the  administration  of  Mr. 
Tyler,  not  otherwise  illustrious,  was  distinguished 
at  last  by  the  admission  of  Texas.  The  election 
came  off  March  11,  1845.  Mr.  Hale  received  about 
8,000  votes,  and  the  regular  Democratic  candidate 
lacked  about  1,000  votes  of  an  election.  Mr.  Hale 
had  taken  no  very  active  part  in  it.  He  had  not 
been  hopeful  of  a  successful  resistance  to  the  party 
despotism,  and  had  made  arrangements  to  retire 
from  political  life,  and  take  up  the  practice  of  his 
profession  in  the  city  of  New  York.  Many  years 
afterward  he  said  in  the  senate, — "  When  I  went 
home  from  Washington  at  the  close  of  the  session 
in  1845,  I  had  no  more  idea  of  being  returned  to 
congress  than  I  had  of  succeeding  to  the  vacant 
throne  of  China."  Moreover,  in  his  letter  to  his 
constituents,  he  had  rather  incautiously  said  :  "  If 
you  think  differently  from  me  on  this  subject,  and 
should  therefore  deem  it  expedient  to  select  another 
person  to  effectuate  your  purpose  in  congress,  no 
person  in  the  state  will  bow  more  submissively  to 
your  will  than  myself."  With  a  perhaps  over- 
scrupulous sense  of  honor,  he  regarded  this  as  a 
sort  of  pledge  to  leave  the  result  with  them  with- 
out interference.  But  the  result  of  the  first  trial 
convinced  him  that  New  Hampshire  was  not  yet 
irrevocably  mortgaged  to  the  slave  propaganda, 
nor  wholly  prepared  to  execute  the  edicts  of  party 
tyranny.  His  friends  gathered  around  him,  and 
demanded  that  he  take  the  field  in  person.  Their 
summons  to  him  was  the  appeal  of  the  Andalusian 
king  to  the  ancient  Douglas  : 


JOHN   P.    HALE.  51 

"  Take  thou  the  leading  of  the  van, 
And  charge  the  Moors  amain ; 
There  is  not  such  a  lance  as  thine 
In  all  the  hosts  of  Spain." 

Mr.  Hale  yielded  to  these  importunities  rather 
than  to  any  ambitious  views  or  hopes  of  his  own. 
He  assumed  the  leadership  ;  he  canvassed  the  state  ; 
he  delivered  speeches  wherever  he  could  get  a 
hearing,  to  audiences  large  and  small,  in  halls,  in 
churches,  in  vestries,  in  school-rooms,  in  the  open 
air,  everywhere  stirring  and  thrilling  the  people 
with  his  warm  and  glowing  eloquence,  and  his 
impassioned  appeals  to  duty  and  manliness.  He 
was  then  in  his  full  prime.  His  figure  was  noble 
and'  commanding — 

''A  combination  and  a  form  indeed, 
Where  every  god  did  seem  to  set  his  seal, 
To  give  the  world  assurance  of  a  man." 

His  voice  was  resonant  and  flexible  ;  his  counte- 
nance was  one  of  striking  manly  beauty ;  he  had 
perfect  command  of  words,  and  perfect  command 
of  his  temper ;  his  self-control,  his  chivalrous  cour- 
tesy, were  superb  ;  his  sincerity  and  loyalty  to  his 
convictions  were  manifest,  and  it  required  a  crisis 
like  this,  the  liberties  of  man  hanging  in  the  bal- 
ance, to  give  full  sweep  to  his  unrivalled  powers, 
his  wit,  his  humor,  his  brilliant  repartee,  and  bring 
into  play  all  the  resources  of  his  large  mind,  his 
humane  spirit,  his  liberty-loving  heart.  The  cir- 
cumstances had  never  had  a  parallel.  Here  was  a 
man  who  was  voluntarily  putting  to  hazard  the 


52  JOHN   P.   HALE. 

highest  hopes  and  brightest  prospects — renouncing 
all  by  a  sublime  act  of  political  abnegation  and  self- 
effacement — making    way    for  liberty  like  Arnold 
Von   Winkelreid    charging    the  Austrian    army ; 
giving   up   a  party  whose  ascendency  in  his  own 
state  was  so  pronounced  as  to  be  beyond  question, 
whose  particular  pride  and   pet  he  was,  and   by 
whose  generous  suffrages  he  had  been  set  forward 
in  a  career  of  political  advancement  whose  goal  he 
might  without  unwarranted  pretension  easily  see  in 
the  highest  honor  of  the  world.     As  far  as  human 
forecast  could  reach,  this  course  opened  to  him  no 
road  to  favor  or  patronage.     As  no  man  could  be 
so  visionary  as  to  indulge  a  hope  of  breaking  the 
spell   of  Democratic   victory  in  New  Hampshire, 
adherence  to   his  party  connection  and  obedience 
to  party  direction  were  unquestionably  the  readiest 
and  only  path  to  influence  and  promotion.     Con- 
curring with  this  was  Mr.  Hale's  natural  fondness 
for  popular  applause  and  for  political  life,  his  al- 
leged ambition,  and  his  growing  popularity  as  an 
orator   and   statesman.     But    all  were   renounced. 
He  hazarded  wealth,  power,  political   preferment, 
and  held  out  110  lure  to  his  followers  but  the  cold 
and  hunger  which  Garibaldi  promised  to  those  who 
should  strike  with  him  for  the  deliverance  of  Italy. 
In  his  own  words,  he  sat  on  no  stool  of  repentance. 
He  maintained  the  defiant  attitude  he  had  taken 
up,  and   defended  his  position  before  the  people 
with  imperturbable  wit,  with  infinite  good  humor, 
and  incomparable  eloquence.     In  this  extraordinary 
crusade  of  Mr.  Hale  there  was  a  certain  romantic 
knight-errantry,  which,  with  the  charm  of  his  per- 


JOHN  P.   HALE.  53 

sonality,  his  gallant  and  chivalrous  bearing,  his 
noble  heart,  his  freedom  from  all  vindictiveness  as 
from  every  selfish  ambition,  captivated  the  imagina- 
tion of  the  people,  and  made  him  an  ideal  popular 
hero.  Brave  men  flocked  to  his  standard,  and 
gladly  bared  their  own  bosoms  to  the  shafts  of  the 
pro-slavery  hatred  aimed  at  him.  He  was  a  popu- 
lar idol,  and  made  of  political  coadjutors  devoted 
personal  friends.  They  lived  in  his  "  mild  and 
magnificent  eye,"  and  loved  to  follow  wherever  his 
white  plume  danced  in  the  eddies  of  the  fight. 
They  were  his  disciples,  and  asked  nothing  better 
than  the  title  of  "  Hale  men,"  thus  identifying 
themselves  with  this  eloquent  champion  of  liberty 
sans  peur  et  sans  reproche.  I  shall  never  forget 
how  a  noble  old  man  once  told  me  that  in  those 
days  no  night  ever  passed  when  he  and  his  wife 
did  not  together  send  up  their  prayers  that  God 
would  bless,  and  protect,  and  keep  John  P.  Hale. 
And  not  alone  were  their  aspirations  wafted  heaven- 
ward for  his  welfare  ;  but  thousands  in  ISTew  Hamp- 
shire, and  everywhere  in  America  where  human 
hearts  were  beginning  to  stir  with  new  thoughts  of 
freedom,  sent  up  daily  their  petitions  to  the  Most 
High  to  cover  his  head  in  battle,  and  shelter  him 
under  the  shadow  of  His  wing.  The  "  Hale  storm" 
of  1845  is  the  heroic  and  romantic  episode  of  our 
political  history,  and  veterans  who  lived  in  and 
have  survived  that  time  turn  back  to  the  period 
fondly  as  one  when  it  was  worth  while  to  live. 
Thus  the  conflict  went  on  through  the  summer 

"  His  was  the  voice  that  rang 
In  the  fight  like  a  hugle-call." 


54  JOHN   P.   HALE. 

Perhaps  its  most  striking  incident  was  the  cele- 
brated meeting  of  Mr.  Hale  and  Franklin  Pierce  at 
the  Old  North  church  in  Concord  on  the  9th  of 
June,  1845.  The  circumstances  were  suited  to 
exhibit  Mr.  Hale's  extraordinary  powers,  and  they 
were  displayed  to  the  greatest  advantage.  During 
that  week,  the  legislature  commenced  its  session.  A 
meeting  of  Independent  Democrats,  to  be  addressed 
by  Mr.  Hale,  had  been  called,  and  there  was  an 
unusual  assemblage  of  people  in  town  in  attendance 
upon  various  religious  and  benevolent  anniversaries. 
The  Democrats,  apprehensive  of  the  effect  of  such 
a  speech  upon  an  audience  so  intelligent  and  con- 
scientious, resolved  that  he  must  be  answered  on  the 
spot,  and  Franklin  Pierce  was  selected  as  the  only 
man  at  all  fitted  for  such  an  encounter.  The  old 
church  was  crowded  beyond  its  capacity.  Mr.  Hale 
spoke  for  two  hours,  making  a  calm,  dignified,  and 
effective  vindication  of  his  principles  and  conduct. 
Occasionally  rudely  interrupted,  he  never  lost  his 
temper,  nor  that  splendid  equanimity  which  availed 
him  on  so  many  occasions  in  debate.  He  rose  to  a 
surprising  eloquence  in  denunciation  of  slavery,  and 
at  the  end  it  was  manifest  that,  whether  they  agreed 
with  his  conclusions  or  not,  all  were  convinced  that 
he  had  been  actuated  by  pure  motives  and  a  high 
sense  of  public  duty. 

Mr.  Pierce  was  himself  a  nervous,  energetic,  and 
brilliant  orator;  but,  for  the  task  set  before  him,  he 
was  handicapped  by  the  inconsistencies  of  the  Dem- 
ocratic record,  and  by  Mr.  Hale's  glowing  appeal  to 
the  nobler  sentiments  of  humanity,  lifting  the  plane 
of  discussion  entirely  above  its  ordinary  dead  level. 


JOHN   P.   HALE.  55 

He  replied  to  Mr.  Hale  in  a  passionate  and  impe- 
rious, not  to  say  insolent,  manner,  accusing  him  of 
ambitious  motives,  and  defending,  as  he  only  could, 
the  party  in  power  for  its  efforts  to  extend  the  area 
of  the  republic  by  bringing  the  vast  territory  of 
Texas  under  its  sway.  The  advantage  in  temper 
was  very  manifest,  and  when  Mr.  Hale  had  rejoined 
with  a  triumphant  vindication  of  his  own  motives 
and  purposes,  he  closed  with  this  magnificent  appeal : 
"  I  expected  to  be  called  ambitious ;  to  have  my 
name  cast  out  as  evil.  I  have  not  been  disappoint- 
ed. But,  if  things  have  come  to  this  condition,  that 
conscience  and  a  sacred  regard  for  truth  and  duty 
are  to  be  publicly  held  up  to  ridicule,  and  scouted  at 
without  rebuke,  as  has  just  been  done  here,  it  mat- 
ters little  whether  we  are  annexed  to  Texas  or 
Texas  is  annexed  to  us.  I  may  be  permitted  to 
say  that  the  measure  of  my  ambition  will  be  full,  if, 
when  my  earthly  career  shall  be  finished  and  my 
bones  be  laid  beneath  the  soil  of  New  Hampshire, 
when  my  wife  and  children  shall  repair  to  my  grave 
to  drop  the  tear  of  affection  to  my  memory,  they  may 
read  on  my  tombstone,  '  He  who  lies  beneath  sur- 
rendered office,  place,  and  power,  rather  than  bow 
down  and  worship  slavery.' '  In  the  opinion  of 
Mr.  Hale's  friends,  his  victory  was  indisputable.  No 
debate  in  New  Hampshire  ever  had  such  interest, 
and  none  results  at  all  comparable  with  it  in  import- 
ance. Beyond  doubt  Mr.  Pierce's  effort  that  day 
made  him  president  of  the  United  States,  and  Mr. 
Hale's  led  to  the  triumph  of  his  party,  whereby  he 
became  the  first  anti-slavery  senator  and  the  recog- 
nized pioneer  champion  of  the  Free-Soil  movement. 


56  JOHN   P.    HALE. 

On  the  23d  of  September,  1845,  the  third  trial  was 
held  for  representative  in  congress,  resulting  in  a 
Democratic  defeat  by  about  the  same  vote  as  be- 
fore, the  Hale  men  holding  the  balance  of  power 
between  them  and  the  Whigs.  November  29, 1845, 
a  fourth  trial  left  the  Democrats  in  a  still  more  deci- 
sive minority;  and  then  the  final  struggle  for  mas- 
tery in  the  state  was  postponed  to  the  annual  elec- 
tion, March  10,  1846.  During  the  winter,  Mr.  Hale 
canvassed  the  state  again,  everywhere  the  admired 
champion  of  a  cause  now  manifestly  advancing  to 
certain  triumph.  The  result  was  a  complete  over- 
throw of  the  party  in  power  in  New  Hampshire,  the 
Whigs  and  Independent  Democrats  together  hav- 
ing both  branches  of  the  legislature,  and  a  consid- 
erable majority  of  the  popular  vote,  though  there 
was  no  election  of  governor  or  congressman  by  the 
people.  Mr.  Hale  was  chosen  a  representative  from 
Dover,  and,  by  a  coalition  of  Hale  men  and  Whigs, 
was  made  speaker  of  the  house.  Mr.  Colby,  the 
Whig  candidate,  was  elected  governor,  and,  on  the 
9th  of  June,  1846,  Mr.  Hale  was  chosen  United 
States  senator  for  the  full  term  of  six  years  com- 
mencing March  4,  1847.  Thus,  upon  an  issue  dis- 
tinctly joined,  the  Democracy  had  been  signally 
defeated,  and  the  Gibraltar  of  the  North  had  passed 
into  the  hands  of  the  combined  opposition.  The 
first  and  strongest  outwork  had  been  carried  in  a 
square  contest  against  the  extension  of  a  system 
which  met  the  moral  reprobation  of  the  world,  and 
the  victory  proclaimed  that  never  again  was  New 
Hampshire  to  sit  supinely  by,  to  take  the  orders 
and  register  the  edicts  of  slavery.  The  note  of  defi- 


JOHN  P.   HALE.  57 

ance  and  of  resistance  to  further  slavery  aggression 
rang  out  clear  and  strong  from  these  New  Hamp- 
shire hills,  and  was  heard  throughout  America. 
!Nb  ear  so  dull  that  did  not  hear  it;  no  brain  so 
sluggish  that  did  not  comprehend  it.  As  armies 
in  mythologic  story  paused  in  mid-contest  to  watch 
the  issue  of  a  single  combat,  so  in  some  sense  the 
people  of  America  turned  to  observe  the  outcome 
of  this  struggle;  and  Mr.  Hale's  success  in  ]STew 
Hampshire  in  resistance  to  slavery,  and  to  party 
subserviency  and  tyranny,  was  the  first  lightning 
gleam  of  victory  lighting  up  the  dark  clouds  that 
hung  over  the  country.  It  was  an  encouragement 
and  a  challenge  to  other  states  and  the  friends  of 
liberty  elsewhere.  An  inspired  singer  and  prophet 
of  anti-slavery  had  watched  the  struggle  with 
breathless  interest  from  his  home  just  across  our 
border,  and  it  called  out  from  him  that  immortal 
tribute  to  New  Hampshire,  which  will  live  with  her 
fame  and  the  name  of  John  G.  Whittier  forever : 

"  God  bless  New  Hampshire — from  her  granite  peaks 
Once  more  the  voice  of  Stark  and  Langdon  speaks. 
The  long  bound  vassal  of  the  exulting  South 
For  very  shame  her  self-forged  chain  has  broken, — 
Torn  the  black  seal  of  slavery  from  her  mouth, 
And  in  the  clear  tones  of  her  old  time  spoken  I 
Oh,  all  undreamed  of,  all  unhoped  for  changes  I 
The  tyrant's  ally  proves  his  sternest  foe  ; 
To  all  his  biddings,  from  her  mountain  ranges, 
New  Hampshire  thunders  an  indignant  No  I 
Who  is  it  now  despairs  ?   Oh  I  faint  of  heart, 
Look  upward  to  those  Northern  mountains  cold, 
Flouted  by  Freedom's  victor-flag  unrolled, 
And  gather  strength  to  bear  a  manlier  part  I 
All  is  not  lost.     The  Angel  of  God's  blessing 


58  JOHN   P.    HALE. 

Encamps  with  Freedom  on  the  field  of  fight ; 
Still  to  her  banner,  day  by  day,  are  pressing 
Unlooked  for  allies,  striking  for  the  right ! 
Courage,  then,  Northern  hearts ! — Be  firm,  be  true  : 
What  one  brave  state  hath  done,  can  ye  not  also  do  ?" 

Here  were  the  first  fruits  of  John  P.  Hale's  man- 
ly resistance  to  slavery  in  America.  At  first  but  a 
feeble  protest,  scarcely  heard  amid  the  hosannas  of 
Northern  servility  to  the  slave  power,  it  had  swelled 
into  a  volume  of  indignant  opposition,  which  had 
swept  away  the  strongest  muniments  of  oppression 
in  the  North.  It  gave  courage  everywhere  for  the 
great  struggle  just  opening  before  this  people.  In 
the  words  of  Cardinal  Newman, "  We  did  but  light 
a  beacon  fire  on  the  summit  of  a  lonely  hill;  and 
anon  we  were  amazed  to  find  the  firmament  on 
every  side  red  with  the  light  of  a  responsive  flame." 

And  now,  is  there  occasion  for  either  hesitation 
or  apology  in  making  claim  in  behalf  of  John  P. 
Hale  for  pioneership  in  the  great  Free-soil  move- 
ment which  finally  overthrew  slavery  in  the  United 
States?  New  Hampshire  was  the  first  battle-field 
of  the  new  crusade,  and  John  P.  Hale  commanded 
the  vanguard.  Aye,  more,  in  his  Texas  letter  he 
had  formulated  the  issues  upon  which  the  fight  was 
to  be  made  and  won,  the  identical  postulates  which 
were  afterwards  to  be  the  principles  of  a  great  polit- 
ical party  not  yet  born,  under  whose  lead  the  war 
was  to  be  fought  and  emancipation  come  to  the 
country  and  the  slave.  The  Hon.  Amos  Tuck,  one 
of  the  earliest,  ablest,  and  most  faithful  of  the  fol- 
lowers of  Mr.  Hale,  at  Downer  Landing  in  1878, 
met  the  claim  of  Massachusetts  that  the  Republi- 


JOHN   P.    HALE.  59 

can  party  was  founded  there  in  1848,  by  showing- 
that  that  party  was  anticipated  in  every  one  of  its 
ideas  by  the  Hale  party  in  New  Hampshire  in 
1845,  and  that  John  P.  Hale  won  his  election  as 
the  first  anti-slavery  senator,  and  sat  in  that  body, 
alone,  as  such,  for  two  years  before  a  friendly 
senator  came  to  join  him,  and  two  years  before  the 
date  which  Massachusetts  claims  for  her  patent. 
This  claim  for  "New  Hampshire  and  for  Mr.  Hale  is 
impregnable.  Therefore  I  say  that  no  man  can  pre- 
cede Mr.  Hale  as  the  founder  of  the  Republican 
party,  and  all  that  is  implied  thereby:  and  that 
whatever  of  merit  may  attach  to  such  a  sponsor- 
ship— and  I  know  full  well  that  many  still  regard  it 
as  a  cause  for  condemnation  rather  than  praise — 
that  whatever  of  glory  or  shame  there  be  in  it,  be- 
longs to  him  more  than  to  any  other  man.  I  must 
ask  indulgence  for  the  use  of  political  terminology,, 
which  I  employ  because  I  find  our  resources  of  ex- 
pression inadequate  to  convey  any  clear  ideas  with- 
out using  the  terms  Democrat  and  Republican. 

Mr.  Hale  took  his  seat  in  the  senate,  December 
6,  1847,  and  for  the  first  time  American  slavery 
was  confronted  in  his  person  by  the  aroused  moral 
sense  of  the  American  people.  From  his  first  dra- 
matic appearance  in  that  body  this  solitary  repre- 
sentative of  freedom  was  the  object  of  the  bitter 
hatred  and  disdain  of  the  slave  oligarchy.  He  en- 
tered a  senate  composed  of  thirty-two  Democrats,, 
twenty-one  Whigs,  and  himself.  Declining  to  be 
classified  with  either,  he  unfalteringly  took  up  and 
held  the  position  of  an  anti-slavery  independent. 
He  declined  the  obscurity  to  which  both  sides  would 


60  JOHN   P.   HALE. 

have  relegated  him,  and  for  two  years  before  he 
was  joined  by  Chase  in  1849,  the  anti-slavery  move- 
ment centred  around  his  striking  personality,  and 
he  stood  there  alone,  resisting  at  every  step  the  ag- 
gressive measures  of  slavery,  maintaining  his  ground 
with  unsurpassed  resources  of  wit  and  logic,  elo- 
quence and  good  humor.  He  entered  resolutely 
into  the  public  business  and  had  to  stand  in  the 
breach  and  contend  single-handed  with  the  entire 
senate,  containing  then  not  only  the  great  triumvi- 
rate of  oratory  and  statesmanship,  but  also  many 
others  of  the  highest  distinction  and  ability.  He 
met  them  face  to  face,  and  dealt  sturdy  blows  for 
freedom  in  every  emergency.  His  weapons  were 
of  that  firm  edge  and  fine  temper  that  might  be 
broken,  but  would  not  turn,  in  their  impact  upon 
the  brazen  front  of  oppression.  Every  means  of 
silencing  him  was  resorted  to,  threats,  insults,  sneers, 
ridicule,  derision.  He  was  treated  with  studied 
contempt  by  the  South,  and  with  cold  neglect  by 
the  North.  He  was  denied  the  common  courtesy 
of  a  place  on  senatorial  committees,  being  told  pub- 
licly by  a  senator  who  was  afterward  expelled  from 
the  body  for  disloyalty,  that  he  was  considered  out- 
side of  any  healthy  political  organization  in  the 
country.  But  this  discipline  was  lost  on  him.  He 
had  the  moral  courage  which  shrinks  from  no  duty — 
that  calm,  firm,  cool,  inflexible,  resolution  which 
clinched  its  determination  to  go  straightforward 
with  Luther's  exclamation,  "  I  will  repair  thither 
though  I  should  find  there  as  many  devils  as  there 
are  tiles  on  the  house  tops.  I  cannot  do  otherwise, 
God  helping  me."  It  is  not  practicable  to  refer 


JOHN  P.   HALE.  61 

minutely  to  the  debates  in  which  Mr.  Hale  mingled 
in  the  senate.  In  1848,  in  the  discussion  upon  the 
admission  of  Oregon,  he  proposed  as  an  amendment 
the  ordinance  of  1787  excluding  slavery,  which 
gave  rise  to  a  fierce  debate,  in  the  course  of  which 
he  was  the  subject  of  most  personal  and  inflamma- 
tory denunciations.  He  defended  himself  with  con- 
summate ability,  declaring  his  determination  to 
press  the  prohibition  of  slavery  according  to  his 
own  judgment.  Said  he,  "  I  am  willing  to  place 
myself  upon  the  great  principle  of  human  right,  to 
stand  where  the  word  of  God  and  my  own  con- 
science concur  in  placing  me,  and  then  bid  defiance 
to  all  consequences."  Early  in  April,  1848,  upon 
resolutions  of  sympathy  with  the  up-risings  of  the 
down-trodden  nationalities  of  Europe,  Mr.  Hale 
spoke  in  the  senate  in  a  strain  of  sadness  mingled 
with  enthusiasm  and  a  lofty  hope  for  the  disenthrall- 
ment  of  all  men,  in  America  and  Europe  alike. 

In  a  debate  occasioned  by  certain  mob  demon- 
strations against  the  office  of  the  National  Era  in 
Washington,  Mr.  Hale  introduced  a  resolution  cop- 
ied from  the  laws  of  Maryland,  providing  for  the 
reimbursement  of  persons  whose  property  should 
be  destroyed  by  riotous  assemblages.  This  led  to 
a  controversy  with  Mr.  Calhoun,  in  which  the  great 
Southerner  forgot  his  usual  urbanity  and  became 
violently  personal,  and  ended  his  speech  by  saying, 
that  he  "  would  as  soon  argue  with  a  maniac  from 
Bedlam  as  with  the  senator  from  ~New  Hampshire 
on  this  subject."  Mr.  Hale  retorted  by  telling  Mr. 
Calhoun  that  it  was  a  novel  mode  of  terminating  a 
controversy  by  charitably  throwing  the  mantle  of  a 


62  JOHN  P.   HALE. 

maniac's  irresponsibility  upon  one's  antagonist.  In 
this  debate,  Mr.  Foote  of  Mississippi,  after  many 
insulting  expressions,  and  denouncing  Mr.  Hale's 
bill  as  "  obviously  intended  to  cover  and  protect 
negro  stealing,"  turned  to  Mr.  Hale  and  said :  "  I 
invite  him  to  visit  the  good  state  of  Mississippi,  in 
which  I  have  the  honor  to  reside,  and  will  tell  him 
beforehand  in  all  honesty,  that  he  could  not  go  ten 
miles  into  the  interior  before  he  would  grace  one  of 
the  tallest  trees  of  the  forest  with  a  rope  around 
his  neck,  with  the  approbation  of  every  virtuous 
and  patriotic  citizen;  and  that,  if  necessary,  I  should 
myself  assist  in  the  operation."  Mr.  Hale  replied: 
"  The  senator  invites  me  to  visit  the  state  of  Missis- 
sippi, and  kindly  informs  me  that  he  would  be  one 
of  those  who  would  act  the  assassin,  and  put  an  end 
to  my  career  *  *  *  Well,  in  return  for  his  hospit- 
able invitation,  I  can  only  express  the  desire  that 
he  should  penetrate  into  one  of  the  '  dark  cor- 
ners '  of  A$QW  Hampshire,  and,  if  he  do,  I  am  much 
mistaken  if  he  would  not  find  that  the  people  in 
that  '  benighted  region '  would  be  very  happy  to  lis- 
ten to  his  arguments,  and  engage  in  an  intellectual 
conflict  with  him,  in  which  the  truth  might  be  elic- 
ited." The  ruffianism  of  the  assault,  and  the  noble- 
ness of  the  reply,  have  consigned  Senator  Foote, 
though  a  brilliant  and  by  no  means  a  bad  man,  to 
the  pillory  of  history,  with  a  soubriquet  given  him 
by  the  public  instinct  which  will  last  forever. 

He  opposed  the  whole  system  of  measures  pur- 
sued in  prosecuting  the  war  with  Mexico,  because, 
in  the  language  of  Mr.  Webster  himself,  it  was  "  an 
iniquitous  war  made  in  order  to  obtain,  by  conquest, 


JOHN  P.   HALE.  63 

slave  territory."  In  December,  1849,  Mr.  Hale 
again  proposed  to  incorporate  the  ordinance  of  1787 
into  Mr.  Foote's  resolution,  declaring  it  to  be  the 
duty  of  congress  to  provide  territorial  governments 
for  California,  Deseret,  and  ~New  Mexico. 

At  a  later  day  the  compromise  measures  of  1850, 
including  the  fugitive  slave  law,  which  he  loathed 
and  defied,  were  fought  by  him  with  all  the  weap- 
ons of  his  logic,  wit,  ridicule,  and  sarcasm,  and  with 
all  his  parliamentary  resources.  He  occupied  two 
days  in  an  elaborate  argument,  vindicating  the 
principles,  measures,  and  acts  of  anti-slavery  men. 

This  was,  perhaps,  the  most  powerful  of  his  sena- 
torial efforts.  In  it  he  grappled  resolutely  with 
the  morality,  the  statesmanship,  and  the  policy,  of 
Mr.  Webster's  7th  of  March  speech,  quoting  his 
former  declarations  against  himself,  agreeing  with 
Mr.  Webster  in  1848,  but  dissenting  from  him  in 
1850,  and  saying :  u  Yet  the  senator  says  he 
would  not  reenact  the  laws  of  God.  Well,  sir,  I 
would.  When  he  tells  me  that  the  law  of  God  is 
against  slavery,  it  is  a  most  potent  argument  for 
our  incorporating  it  with  any  territorial  bill  "  He 
closed  with  an  eloquent  presentation  of  the  princi- 
ples and  aims  of  the  Free-Soil  party,  of  which  he 
was  the  foremost  champion. 

The  abolition  of  flogging  in  the  navy  was  a  con- 
genial field  for  the  exertion  of  his  humane  spirit. 
In  the  senate  he  promptly  renewed  the  efforts  he 
had  commenced  in  the  house.  In  July,  1848,  he  mov- 
ed to  insert  in  the  naval  appropriation  bill  a  clause 
abolishing  the  spirit  ration  and  prohibiting  corporal 
punishment  in  the  navy.  He  addressed  the  senate 


64  JOHN   P.    HALE. 

in  its  favor,  but  only  four  senators  rose  with  him. 
In  February,  1849,  he  again  presented  petitions, 
and  made  a  strong  speech,  in  which  he  depicted  in 
glowing  colors  the  brutality,  degradation,  and  out- 
rage of  punishment  with  the  cat-o'-nine-tails,  but 
was  voted  down  by  32  to  17.  In  September,  1850, 
he  made  a  final  impassioned  appeal  to  the  senate  to 
stand  no  longer  in  the  way  of  the  abolition  of  flog- 
ging in  the  navy,  and  on  the  same  day  it  was  car- 
ried as  a  part  of  the  appropriation  bill  by  a  vote  of 
26  to  24,  and  was  concurred  in  by  the  house.  Thus 
at  last  his  efforts  were  crowned  with  success.  It 
was  a  joyful  day  for  the  American  navy  and  for 
humanity.  It  was  one  of  the  most  gratifying  inci- 
dents of  his  life  when,  two  years  after,  he  was  re- 
ceived by  Commodore  Nicholson  and  crew  on  board 
the  man-of-war  Germantown  in  Boston  harbor,  who 
thanked  him  for  his  noble  efforts  in  abolishing  flog- 
ging in  the  United  States  navy,  presented  him 
with  a  medal,  and  manned  the  yards  in  his  honor. 
It  was  not  till  twelve  years  after,  however,  that  he 
secured  the  abolition  of  the  spirit  ration.  His 
agency  in  these  beneficent  reforms  is  one  of  his 
chiefest  titles  to  honor,  and  is  most  fittingly  com- 
memorated on  the  pedestal  of  this  statue. 

Thus  upon  every  question  that  arose  he  sustained 
his  part  with  a  manliness,  a  courage,  and  a  nobility  of 
soul  which  extorted  the  admiration  of  foes  as  well 
as  friends.  To  adapt  the  language  of  Junius,  "  The 
rays  of  Southern  indignation  collected  upon  him 
served  only  to  illumine,  they  could  not  consume." 
The  estimate  placed  upon  his  services  and  character 
was  manifested  by  his  unanimous  nomination  for 


JOHN  P.   HALE.  65 

the  presidency  by  the  Liberty  party  at  Buffalo  in 
1847.  He  magnanimously  relinquished  this  candi- 
dacy, and  submitted  himself  to  the  will  of  the  later 
Free-Soil  convention  at  Buffalo  in  1848,  thus  mak- 
ing way  for  Mr.  Van  Buren,  who  was  there  nom- 
inated over  him  by  a  majority  of  40  votes.  Mr. 
Hale  afterwards  said  that  if  he  had  had  any  idea 
that  the  Barnburners  had  in  mind  only  to  revenge 
Mr.  Yan  Buren's  wrongs  upon  Gen.  Cass  in  1848, 
he  would  have  lost  his  right  hand  before  he  would 
have  been  a  party  to  such  a  fraud.  In  August, 
1852,  the  Free-Soil  party  at  Pittsburg  nominated 
Mr.  Hale  as  its  candidate  for  president,  and  under 
the  banner  of  Free  Soil,  Free  Speech,  Free  Labor, 
Free  Men,  ~No  More  Slave  States,  and  no  Slave  Ter- 
ritories, he  received  at  the  election  155,850  votes. 

His  first  term  in  the  senate  is  the  period  of  focal 
interest  in  Mr.  Hale's  career.  He  was  the  gallant 
leader  of  a  forlorn  hope.  He  was  the  avant  courier 
of  a  new  regime.  In  him  were  concentrated  in  germ 
all  the  forces  of  the  new  era.  Every  attempt  to 
suppress  him  proved  unavailing.  He  stubbornly 
contested  every  inch  of  ground.  He  stood  up  and 
battled  unfalteringly  for  his  principles  against  all 
threats,  all  intimidations,  all  allurements.  And  yet 
he  steered  clear  of  all  the  breakers  and  shoals  in 
such  a  dangerous  course.  His  tact  and  disposition 
alike  kept  him  always  within  the  proprieties  of  de- 
bate. The  enemies  who  hated  him  watched  in  vain 
for  some  word,  some  purpose  disloyal  to  the  Union 
which  they  affected  to  champion,  but  were  foiled  by 
the  absence  of  all  vindictive  feeling  or  speech,  and 
by  a  marvellous  moderation  and  self-restraint  in 


66  JOHN    P.    HALE. 

the  face  of  provocation.  Ignored,  socially  tabooed, 
insulted,  he  showed  no  resentment.  Assailed  ran- 
cQrously  on  all  sides,  he  replied  with  good-natured 
vehemence,  but  a  never- failing  courtesy.  Occasion- 
ally, however,  he  carried  the  war  into  Africa,  and 
transfixed  the  slave  power  with  the  keen  arrows  of 
satire  and  invective.  He  gave  the  giant  wrong  no 
rest  and  no  quarter.  He  charged  its  defenders 
in  front  and  flank  and  rear,  and,  returning  again 
and  again  to  the  combat,  while  his  assaults  were 
redoubled,  he  at  length  secured  a  comparative  im- 
munity from  personal  attack.  Thus  his  position 
lifted  him  into  a  grand  and  superb  isolation;  and 
now  that  we  stand  on  the  vantage  ground  which 
he  won  for  us,  we  are  able  in  some  degree  to  enter 
into  that  high  companionship,  and  into  the  elevation 
of  spirit  that  sustained  him  in  his  self-appointed 
role  of  austere  political  solitude.  As  has  been  said 
of  General  Gordon  "  we  know  to-day  that  he  alone 
was  awake  in  a  world  of  dreamers." 

Thus  for  two  years  one  great  heroic  figure  was 
prominently  before  the  eyes  of  America.  Solitary 
and  alone,  he  represented  in  the  senate  the  dawn- 
ing hope  of  freedom.  But  may  we  not  be  sure 
that  he  already  heard  behind  him,  in  imagination, 
the  on-coming  hosts  of  the  new  era,  closing  their 
ranks  and  advancing  to  the  last  onset  against  slav- 
ery, which  should  sweep  away  the  embattled  pha- 
lanxes of  oppression?  Did  he  not  have  something 
of  the  fine  instinct  of  that  Scottish  girl,  who,  laying 
her  ear  to  the  ground,  exclaimed,  with  streaming 
eyes  and  transfigured  face,  "  Dinna  ye  hear  the  slo- 
gan? It's  the  Campbells  a  comin'!"  So,  again,  on 


JOHN  P.   HALE.  67 

a  larger  battlefield  than  Lucknow,  where  greater 
issues  hung  in  the  balance,  "  the  Campbells  were 
a-comm',"  and  it  was  given  to  this  inspired  prophet 
of  anti-slavery  to  cheer  up  the  beleaguered  garri- 
son of  freedom,  to  make  one  more  struggle  and  hold 
out  for  the  victory.  The  Campbells  came — Chase 
and  Seward  and  Sumner  were  their  vanguard — a 
glorious  reenforcement,  and  from  that  moment  the 
forces  of  liberty  were  to  grow  and  grow,  till  the 
exasperated  enemy  should  compass  its  own  destruc- 
tion by  raising  its  hand  against  that  very  Union 
whose  sacredness  had  been  for  seventy  years  invok- 
ed in  its  defence. 

One  can  but  wish  for  a  more  elaborate  treatment 
than  is  here  permitted  of  Mr.  Hale's  senatorial  la- 
bors, and  to  reproduce  some  of  the  many  thrilling 
appeals  and  noble  sentiments  which  broke  from  his 
lips  in  the  great  discussions  of  his  first  term.  But 
the  student  of  the  history  of  that  exciting  period, 
and  the  lover  of  eloquence,  will  be  repaid  by  the 
perusal  of  those  great  debates,  and  will  rise  from 
them  with  an  enhanced  appreciation  of  the  splen- 
did powers,  no  less  than  the  grand  earnestness  and 
the  priceless  services  to  liberty,  of  John  P.  Hale. 

At  the  expiration  of  his  first  term  his  opponents 
were  in  control  of  New  Hampshire,  and  chose  his 
successor.  Mr.  Hale  then  proceeded  to  carry  out 
a  long  cherished  design  to  practise  his  profession 
in  the  city  of  New  York,  but  was  recalled  in  1855 
to  fill  the  senatorial  vacancy  occasioned  by  the 
death  of  Mr.  Atherton.  He  served  out  that  term, 
and  was  then  reflected  for  a  full  term  commencing 
in  1859.  During  these  ten  years  of  senatorial  ser- 


68  JOHN   P.    HALE. 

vice  his  course  was  as  straight  as  gravity.  He 
stood  undismayed  and  with  unshaken  constancy 
amid  the  surges  of  a  fierce  contention,  and  nothing 
deflected  him  for  one  moment  from  that  line  of 
conduct  which  he  had  marked  out  as  the  path  of 
conscience  and  duty.  In  the  long  struggles  of 
that  momentous  period  Mr.  Hale  was  found  in  the 
forefront  of  every  debate  where  liberty  was  drawn 
in  peril.  His  speeches  on  the  various  phases  of 
the  Kansas  controversy,  the  Oregon  question,  the 
Dred  Scott  decision,  on  the  constitutional  status  of 
slavery,  on  the  province  of  the  supreme  court  in 
the  settlement  of  questions  of  law  and  political 
pplicy,  on  the  homestead  bill,  on  the  nefarious 
attempt  to  seize  Cuba — all  questions  antedating 
the  war,  are  among  the  historical  headlands  of  the 
epoch;  and  he  was  ever  the  same  bold  and  fearless 
advocate  of  that  policy  which  was  at  an  early  day 
to  take  control  of  the  destinies  of  the  United 
States. 

Meantime,  although  Mr.  Hale  had  gained  a  hear- 
ing for  freedom  in  the  United  States  senate,  and 
the  subject  of  slavery  was  now  open  for  discussion 
everywhere,  yet  it  is  beyond  denial  that  the  insti- 
tution had  made  a  distinct  advance  in  its  aggres- 
sions upon  the  North,  so  far  as  public  measures 
and  its  apparent  hold  upon  public  opinion  were 
concerned.  The  decade  from  1850  to  1860  was 
the  aggressive  decade  of  slavery.  Up  to  that  time 
a  geographical  barrier  had  stood  against  its  ad- 
vance beyond  certain  definite  limits.  But  that  was 
broken  down  by  their  success  in  securing  the  pas- 
sage of  the  fugitive  slave  law  by  the  aid  of  North- 


JOHN   P.   HALE.  69 

ern  votes,  and  in  enforcing  it  in  the  streets  of 
Boston,  where  the  master  did  "  with  his  slaves  sit 
down  at  the  foot  of  Bunker  Hill  monument,"  as 
Mr.  Toombs  had  insolently  boasted  to  Mr.  Hale, 
although  in  defiance  of  the  ominous  ground-swell 
of  liberty  that  shook  the  walls  of  Faneuil  Hall, — 
by  their  victory  in  overthrowing  the  Missouri  com- 
promise, by  the  border-ruffian  outrages  in  Kansas 
whereby  a  soil  predestined  to  freedom  was  drenched 
with  the  blood  of  freemen,  and  by  the  Dred  Scott 
decision.  At  the  opening  of  that  decade  the  Dem- 
ocratic party  had  already  fallen  into  the  deepest 
degradation  and  servility  to  slavery.  The  rabble 
of  the  cities,  poisoned  with  race  antipathies  and 
the  vanity  and  pride  of  power,  had  been  played 
upon  by  the  pliant  demagogues  of  the  North  till 
they  exhibited  a  sort  of  rabies  at  the  mention  of 
the  subject  of  slavery.  The  Whig  party,  whose 
public  utterances  had  been  till  this  time  full  of 
sounding  phrases  protesting  its  fidelity  to  liberty, 
was  rapidly  and  surely  passing  under  the  yoke. 
Cotton  and  trade,  greed  and  conservatism,  had 
done  their  work,  had  honeycombed  that  great 
organization,  and  left  it  only  a  thin  and  superficial 
veneering  of  anti-slavery  sentiment.  So  deter- 
mined was  the  North  to  stand  by  all  the  legal  pre- 
tensions of  slavery,  that  all  hope  of  its  removal  in 
the  Southern  states,  which  idealists  and  ultra 
abolitionists  were  dreaming  of,  was  now  foreclosed. 
The  only  problem  left  was  to  prevent  its  extension. 
It  could  not  be  hoped  to  recede — how  far  should  it 
advance?  Indeed,  the  friends  of  freedom  had  con- 
fined their  labors  to  the  exclusion  of  slavery  from 


70  JOHN   P.   HALE. 

the  territories,  not  venturing  to  assert  their  power 
over  it  even  in  the  District  of  Columbia,  where  the 
clanking  of  the  bondman's  chains  was  to  be  heard 
till  the  nation  should  be  shaken  by  the  throes  of 
the  Civil  "War.  The  Free-Soilers  never  claimed 
any  right  to  legislate  against  slavery  in  the  South- 
ern states.  Within  those  limits  it  was  safe;  was 
entrenched  behind  the  constitution,  and  might  have 
remained  undisturbed  to  this  day,  had  they  abided 
by  that  line.  But  the  South  was  judicially  blind, 
and  made  every  advance  a  pretence  for  a  new 
aggression,  until  every  congress  was  the  theatre 
of  a  conflict  on  the  subject  ever  growing  more  and 
more  intense. 

Look  at  a  partial  catalogue  of  its  excesses  in  this 
decade.  In  1850  by  the  compromise  measures 
congress  renounced  all  authority  over  the  internal 
slave  trade,  exempted  California,  New  Mexico, 
and  Utah  from  all  restriction  as  to  slavery,  and 
enacted  the  fugitive  slave  law,  throwing  to  the 
North  the  poor  sop  of  abolishing  the  slave  trade 
in  the  District  of  Columbia.  The  Missouri  com- 
promise was  overthrown  in  1854,  and  the  territory 
north  of  36  deg.  30  min.,  supposed  to  have  been 
shielded  from  the  possibility  of  contamination, 
thrown  open  to  slavery.  The  climax  of  outrage 
upon  the  North  was  reached  in  the  Dred  Scott  de- 
cision, whereby  the  highest  judicial  tribunal  of  the 
land  delivered  a  judgment  which  overturned  the 
law  of  the  world  that  slavery  was  a  merely  local 
and  municipal  institution,  and  announced  the  doc- 
trine that  the  constitution  protected  the  slave-holder 
in  his  "  property  "  wherever  he  might  go.  By  this 


JOHN   P.   HALE.  71 

decision,  making  slavery  national  and  freedom 
sectional,  slavery  became  the  public  law  of  the  re- 
public; and  its  unparalleled  infamy  justifies  Mr. 
Hale's  indignation  when  he  said  in  1864,  "  In  my 
humble  judgment  if  there  was  one  single,  palpable, 
obvious,  duty  that  we  owed  to  ourselves,  owed  to 
the  country,  owed  to  honesty,  owed  to  God,  when 
we  came  into  power,  it  was  to  drive  a  plowshare 
from  turret  to  foundation  stone  of  the  supreme 
court  of  the  United  States." 

Slavery  felt  itself  secure  only  so  long  as  it  could 
push  itself  into  new  fields;  and  therefore  not  only 
was  the  door  to  every  territory  thrown  open,  but 
a  raid  was  organized  upon  Cuba,  and  a  piratical 
jingoism  held  out  a  most  tempting  lure,  even  to 
cool  Northern  statesmen,  who  could  but  warm  to 
the  idea  of  a  universal  sway  over  the  world's  des- 
tinies. Sixty  years  before,  the  founders  of  the 
constitution  were  ashamed  of  slavery,  and  tried  to 
hide  it  away  under  obscure  phrases  from  history 
and  the  public  opinion  of  the  world.  Now,  minis- 
ters of  the  gospel  unblushingly  defended  it.  The 
presence  of  slavery  had  of  course  subjugated  the 
Southern  churches — and  the  North  had  largely 
followed  suit  under  the  stimulus  of  the  commercial 
greed  that  occupied  the  pews.  Mrs.  Stowe's  satire 
upon  the  clergy  was  warranted  by  the  "  South-side 
Views  "  so  plentifully  served  up  to  us,  and  by  the 
overworking  of  the  texts  in  which  Canaan  was 
cursed,  and  Onesimus  sent  back  by  Paul  to  his 
master  Philemon.  Even  Dr.  Channing's  society 
deserted  him  in  the  later  years  of  his  life  on  ac- 
count of  his  anti-slavery  views. 


72  JOHN   P.    HALE. 

During  this  awful  time,  while  the  republic  was 
writhing  under  its  !N"essus's  shirt  of  slavery,  goad- 
ing and  irritating  it  at  every  step  of  its  painful 
progress,  cowards  and  time-servers  were  lapping 
themselves  in  the  comfortable  assurance  that  slav- 
ery, being  wrong,  was  a  doomed  institution — and 
in  the  conservative  belief  or  the  dastardly  pretence 
that  change  was  to  come  about  solely  by  super- 
natural means,  by  slow  spiritual  influences  proceed- 
ing from  personal  religion.  And  so  we  saw  every- 
where around  us  that  spirit  of  concession,  the  lack 
of  moral  firmness,  the  recreancy  to  principle,  the 
abject  submission  to  Southern  usurpations,  which 
invited  constant  aggression.  During  this  period 
freedom  was  indeed  under  a  ban  at  Washington. 
Adulation  of  the  slave  oligarchy  was  the  fashion. 
To  be  a  Free-Soiler  was  to  be  excluded  from  the 
common  courtesies  and  privileges  of  the  capital. 
All  cabinet  positions,  all  public  offices,  all  com- 
mittees in  the  senate  and  house  were  held  by  pro- 
slavery  men.  An  infamous  code  of  morality,  both 
national  and  international,  prevailed.  Mr.  Buchan- 
an boldly  proclaimed  in  the  Ostend  manifesto  that 
if  Spain  should  refuse  to  sell  Cuba  to  the  United 
States,  "  then  by  every  law,  human  and  divine,  we 
should  be  justified  in  wresting  it  from  Spain,  if  we 
have  the  power."  In  the  raids  upon  Cuba  and  Cen- 
tral America,  the  ill-concealed  designs  against 
Mexico, — then  disorganized,  disintegrating,  and 
liable  at  any  moment  to  fall  into  our  hands  under 
one  pretence  or  another, — and  the  scarcely  veiled 
purpose  to  establish  a  great  continental  slave 
empire, — in  all  these  the  perfidy  and  rapacity  of 


JOHN   P.    HALE.  73 

the  system,  and  its  thirst  for  rapine  and  subjuga- 
tion were  fully  displayed;  and  in  these  acts  how 
vividly  we  now  see,  as  if  on  a  canvas  painted  by 
lightning,  all  the  black  features  of  the  moral  mon- 
ster, which,  in  the  war  that  followed,  displayed  the 
wild  and  frenzied  ferocity,  the  desperate  abandon 
of  cruelty,  which  was  seen  in  the  reign  of  terror 
of  the  French  regicides. 

Never  in  our  history,  however,  were  all  ap- 
pearances so  deceptive  as  in  this  terrible  decade 
when  slavery  was  holding  high  carnival  in  the 
great  republic,  when  it  dominated  society,  and  had 
seized  upon  every  attribute  of  power  in  the  govern- 
ment. There  are  those  here  who  knew  Washing- 
ton between  1850  and  1860.  The  star  of  slavery 
*was  at  its  zenith,  and  as  it  began  to  descend  to  its 
setting,  it  lit  up  the  western  horizon  with  unwont- 
ed brilliancy.  One  saw  its  characteristic  pride,  its 
patrician  charm  of  manners,  its  stately  elegance  of 
forms  and  ceremonies.  But  these  were  only  a 
meretricious  gilt  of  hospitality  and  courtesy, 
shrouding  the  darkest  designs  that  ever  lurked  in 
the  heart  of  a  dominant  class.  As  the  Count  de 
Segur  said  of  France  in  the  day  of  her  approach- 
ing doom,  "  the  old  social  edifice  was  undermined, 
although  there  was  no  slightest  sign  of  its  ap- 
proaching fall." 

There  lay  latent  there  the  revolution,  to  be  pre- 
cipitated by  its  own  madness  indeed,  but  a  revolu- 
tion surcharged  with  the  dormant  energies  of  lib- 
erty,— revolution,  which  the  Due  de  Broglie  calls 
"  that  delicate  and  dreadful  right  which  slumbers 
at  the  feet  of  all  human  institutions,  as  their  sad 


74  JOHN   P.    HALE. 

and  final  safeguard."  The  slave  oligarchy,  like  a 
man  smitten  with  mortal  disease  but  thinking  him- 
self in  perfect  health,  was  never  fuller  of  arrogance, 
of  fire,  of  the  pride  that  goeth  before  a  fall.  Wash- 
ington was  full  of  such  characters  as  only  appear 
in  a  society  on  the  brink  of  perishing, — its  Masons 
and  Slidells,  its  Davises  and  Footes,  its  Soules  and 
Brookses,  and  Wigfalls.  But  let  us  thank  God 
for  the  irrepressible  instincts  of  every  institution  at 
war  with  the  social  order.  Slavery  was  a  Philis- 
tine that  could  not  keep  the  peace.  Conscious 
that  it  could  only  live  by  extending  itself,  it  was 
ever  aiming  at  new  conquests.  It  overreached  it- 
self. Encroachment  after  encroachment,  outrage 
upon  outrage  followed,  till  at  length,  under  the 
faithful  resistance  of  a  few  men,  of  whom  John  P: 
Hale  was  the  pioneer,  the  question  of  slavery  be- 
came flagrant  and  omnipresent.  It  met  men  at 
every  turn  in  debate,  in  some  form  or  other  it  min- 
gled in  every  discussion  of  fact  or  principle,  and 
finally  became  the  sole  issue  to  be  tried  on  the 
battle-field  of  American  politics.  The  delicate 
silence,  the  bated  breath  with  which  "  the  peculiar 
institution "  had  been  regarded,  gave  way  to  the 
open  discussions  of  congress,  of  the  pulpit  awak- 
ened to  its  high  office,  of  the  press,  and  of  the 
hustings  all  over  the  land.  Its  supposed  sacred- 
ness  and  immunity  from  criticism  were  things  of 
the  past.  ~No  longer  was  this  gangrened  sore,  this 
leprous  stain  shielded  from  public  gaze  by  the 
denial  of  the  right  of  petition,  of  liberty  of  debate, 
or  by  a  profound  unconsciousness,  or  indifference, 
or  the  trembling  fears  of  those  who  profited  by  a 


JOHN   P.   HALE.  75 

po.itical  or  commercial  alliance  with  slave-holders 
— that  mercantile  class  which  Burke  described  as 
"  snuffing  with  delight  the  cadaverous  scent  of 
lucre." 

Nor  was  the  time  without  other  hopeful  signs. 
The  wheat  was  getting  sifted  from  the  chaff.  The 
Whig  party  became  defunct  in  1852,  and  the 
Democratic  party,  under  its  heavy  load,  was  totter- 
ing to  its  fall.  The  Conscience  Whigs  were  being 
differentiated  from  the  Cotton  "Whigs,  and  Sew- 
ard,  Adams,  and  Palfrey,  Sumner  and  Wilson, 
Allen  and  Dana,  appeared,  while  Chase  and 
Banks,  Wilmot  and  Grow,  Rantoul  and  Boutwell, 
answered  back  from  the  Democratic  ranks,  and 
took  their  places  in  the  line  that  was  being  formed 
against  slavery.  And  so,  as  the  end  of  this  decade 
approached,  over  which  slavery  was  to  plunge  in- 
to a  yawning  abyss,  the  clouds  that  had  been  gath- 
ering on  the  horizon  began  to  overspread  and 
blacken  the  political  sky.  The  air  was  over- 
charged with  electricity.  The  day  of  retribution 
was  at  hand,  and  we  stood  in  the  vestibule  of  the 
rebellion.  But  when  the  sky  darkened  and  the 
storm  came  on,  such  had  been  the  charity,  the  for- 
bearance, and  the  love  for  his  whole  countrv  of 

V 

the  first  anti-slavery  senator,  that  he  could  with  a 
perfect  conscience  say  with  the  parliamentary  Gen- 
eral Waller,  "  The  great  God  who  is  the  searcher 
of  my  heart  knows  with  what  reluctance  I  go  upon 
this  service,  and  with  what  perfect  hatred  I  look 
upon  a  war  without  an  enemy."  He  had  stood, 
proclaiming  the  solemn  warnings  of  history,  for 
thirteen  years  in  the  United  States  senate.  By 


76  JOHN   P.   HALE. 

masterly  argument,  again  and  again  had  he  dem- 
onstrated the  departure  of  the  country  from  the 
principles  of  the  constitution  and  of  the  men  who 
made  it,  and  in  burning  eloquence  shown  that  slav- 
ery was  a  barbarism  and  an  anachronism.  In  vain 
were  his  appeals;  but  he,  at  least,  had  stood 

"  Among  innumerable  false  unmoved, 
Unshaken,  unseduced,  unterrified, 
His  loyalty  he  kept,  his  love,  his  zeal ; 
Nor  number,  nor  example  with  him  wrought 
To  swerve  from  truth,  or  change  his  constant  mind 
Though  single.     From  amidst  them  forth  he  passed 
Long  way  through  hostile  scorn,  which  he  sustained 
Superior,  nor  of  violence  feared  aught ; 
And  with  retorted  scorn  his  back  he  turned 
On  those  proud  towers  to  swift  destruction  doomed." 

I  would  not  willingly  offend  even  the  shred  of 
what  was  once  conceived  to  be  a  party  sentiment, 
by  any  word  of  indictment  of  American  slavery, 
much  less  of  the  men,  some  of  them  honest  and 
honored,  who  tried  to  save  it  in  its  fall.  But  if  I 
rightly  apprehend  the  present  conditions  of  public 
opinion,  the  horror  of  it  and  the  hostility  to  its  ex- 
tension and  aggrandizement  which  guided  the  po- 
litical course  of  Mr.  Hale,  are  now  become  the 
sovereign  and  universal  principle  of  men  and  na- 
tions. We  have  cast  slavery  aside  into  the  outer 
limbo  of  things  we  would  fain  forget.  We  have 
flung  it  into  the  dark  dungeon  of  loathsome 
things;  the  foul  heap  of  discarded  relics  of  barba- 
rism and  cruelty;  the  stakes,  the  racks,  and  thumb- 
screws; the  Towers  and  Bastiles  of  the  bloody 
past  of  humanity,  and  there  are  none  to-day  so 
poor  as  to  do  it  reverence. 


JOHN  P.    HALE.  7T 

Political  liberty  is  a  development,  and  in  reading 
history  we  mark  the  various  stages  of  its  evolution. 
The  controversy  of  one  generation  becomes  the 
settled  doctrine  of  another,  and  the  stone  rejected 
of  the  builders  becomes  the  head  of  the  corner.  I 
protest  that  I  thresh  over  the  old  straw  of  contro- 
versy only  because  it  is  impossible  to  realize  the 
stress  of  Mr.  Hale's  heroic  warfare,  and  the  sig- 
nificance of  this  memorial,  without  trying  to  un- 
derstand, as  the  present  generation  can  only  faint- 
ly do,  the  nature  of  that  institution  which  it  was 
the  business  of  his  life  to  destroy.  Ah!  dear 
friends,  how  many  fearless  young  men,  then  in  the 
flower  of  their  strength,  are  now  sleeping  beneath 
the  sods  of  the  battle-field!  How  many  maimed 
and  wounded !  How  many  families  still  in  mourn- 
ing! How  many  mothers,  wives,  lovers,  in  tears 
that  will  not  cease  to  flow!  How  many  homes 
desolated  never  to  be  rebuilt!  What  a  sad  conflict 
between  two  sections  of  one  great  people!  And  what 
a  price  did  the  country  pay  for  the  peace  it  could 
have  had  for  the  asking  by  listening  to  the  voice 
of  warning  and  of  conscience  uttered  for  the  first 
time  in  the  senate  by  JOHIST  P.  HALE  ! 

During  the  war  Mr.  Hale  stood  unflinchingly  by 
all  those  principles  with  which  his  name  and  fame 
were  associated,  and  about  which  the  battle  raged 
for  four  long  years.  He  bore  a  conspicuous  part 
in  all  the  debates  of  the  senate  during  the  great 
struggle, — in  vindication  of  the  principles  and  con- 
duct of  New  England  and  New  Hampshire,  in 
denunciation  of  the  fugitive  slave  law  and  efforts 
for  its  repeal,  in  defence  of  himself  as  counsel  in 


78  JOHN   P.    HALE. 

the  fugitive  slave  cases  in  Boston,  and  in  Decem- 
ber, 1860,  he  made  an  eloquent  appeal  for  the 
Union,  which  he  loved  with  a  devotion  far  deeper 
and  warmer  than  that  of  those  who  had  invoked 
its  sacred  authority  in  behalf  of  slavery  for 
thirty  years.  As  the  contest  progressed,  and  the 
black  flag  of  slavery  went  down  upon  one  after  an- 
other of  the  bulwarks  that  had  been  erected  for  its 
defence  in  those  sad  years  of  its  Quixotic  blind- 
ness, he  had  the  satisfaction  of  helping  to  wipe  out 
the  black  code  of  the  District  of  Columbia,  and 
abolishing  slavery  itself  there  in  1862.  Towards 
the  close  of  his  senatorial  career  he  took  a  joyous 
part  in  the  last  mighty  blows  against  the  slave 
system,  which  blotted  it  out  forever  from  our 
escutcheon — the  emancipation  of  the  slaves  of  reb- 
els, the  repeal  of  the  fugitive  slave  law,  and,  final- 
ly, the  adoption  of  the  13th  amendment  to  the  con- 
stitution, which  prohibited  slavery  forever  there- 
after by  the  organic  law  of  the  land,  amid  the 
jubilations  and  fervent  thanksgivings  to  God  of  the 
slave,  and  of  every  lover  of  liberty  the  world  over. 

We  are  apt  perhaps  to  lose  sight  of  Mr.  Hale's 
great  merits  as  a  general  legislator  in  the  splendor 
of  his  services  for  liberty.  But  a  study  of  the 
public  records  will  disclose  his  vigorous  attention 
to  the  general  business  which  came  before  congress, 
in  which  he  labored  with  a  tireless  activity,  an  om- 
nipresent vigilance,  and  an  inflexible  persistency  of 
purpose  on  every  great  question  of  administration 
as  well  as  innumerable  matters  of  detail.  He  par- 
ticipated in  nearly  every  debate  that  took  place  in 
the  senate,  and  was  ever  found  the  consistent  advo- 


JOHN   P.    HALE.  79 

cate  of  a  well  defined  administrative  policy.  He 
was  an  old-fashioned  economist.  Like  Fox,  he 
might  perhaps  have  boasted  his  ignorance  of  the 
"  dismal  science"  of  political  economy;  but  of  the 
economies  and  frugalities  of  the  truly  republican 
house-keeping  of  our  early  days  he  was  an  unswer- 
ving devotee.  He  was  invariably  for  reform,  for 
the  reduction  of  expenses,  the  correction  of  abuses, 
the  curtailment  of  extravagance,  the  lopping-off  of 
superfluities  and  sinecures,  of  perquisites  and  ex- 
cesses in  official  emoluments.  He  was  against  con- 
structive charges  and  salaries,  jobbery,  and  profli- 
gacy of  every  kind.  He  was  against  aggression 
and  against  spoliation;  he  was  the  implacable  foe 
of  monopolies,  of  unjust  claims,  of  extortionate  raids 
upon  the  treasury,  of  frauds  and  corruptions  of 
every  kind.  He  was  the  friend  and  champion  of 
the  laborer  on  the  public  works,  the  private  soldier, 
and  the  common  sailor.  The  Congressional  Globe 
for  twenty  years  is  replete  with  his  untiring  efforts 
for  the  masses  against  the  classes.  He  returned 
daily  to  the  ever  recurring  struggle  on  these  lines 
with  a  vigilance,  a  courage,  a  boldness,  and  fertility 
of  resource  admirable  in  the  last  degree,  and  in  un- 
changing fidelity  to  these  principles  was  never 
found  wanting  fo.-  sixteen  years  in  the  United 
States  senate.  Not  the  least  of  his  titles  to  praise 
is  found  in  the  brave  stand  he  took  against  the 
corruptions  of  the  navy  department,  and  his  fearless 
independence  in  exposing  maladministration  in  his 
own  party,  at  a  time  when  by  so  doing  he  subjected 
himself  to  the  criticism  of  some  friends,  though  he 
supported  every  step  of  Mr.  Lincoln's  administration 


80  JOHN   P.   HALE. 

in  putting  down  the  Rebellion.  His  activity  as  a 
senator  diffused  itself  over  all  the  questions  of  his 
day: — the  homestead  law,  internal  improvements, 
foreign  and  domestic  commerce,  the  tariff,  the  army 
and  navy,  education,  the  judiciary,  patents,  banks, 
appropriations,  the  civil  lists,  pensions,  public  lands, 
sub-treasury,  printing,  the  census,  the  franking 
privilege, — these  all  felt  his  touch.  The  topics  he 
discussed  embraced  the  whole  range  of  our  foreign 
and  domestic  relations,  our  trade  and  administration 
in  every  variety  of  form.  His  views  were  always 
clear,  practical,  comprehensive.  His  logic,  wit, 
and  humor,  his  tenacious  memory  of  legislative  prec- 
edents, his  old-fashioned  frugalities,  his  apt  illus- 
trations, his  parliamentary  skill,  which  justified 
General  Cass  in  calling  him  "  a  most  adroit  parlia- 
mentary tactician," — all  these  were  brought  into  full 
requisition  in  the  general  business  of  the  sessions. 
He  was  not  a  man  of  one  idea.  He  was  an  idealist 
indeed,  but  no  idealist  ever  had  a  more  stalwart 
common  sense,  or  less  of  the  visionary  about  him; 
and,  though  he  was  not  always  right,  no  public  man 
ever  took  so  decided  a  part  on  a  great  variety  of 
subjects  and  made  fewer  mistakes  Despite  his 
anomalous  position  as  a  senator,  he  accomplished 
many  things  in  general  legislation  which  entitle  him 
to  public  gratitude,  and  was  frustrated  by  the  extrav- 
agant tendencies  of  his  time  in  others  which  would 
have  been  still  more  beneficial  to  the  country,  had 
it  been  wise  enough  to  follow  his  lead.  He  was 
the  most  typical  Jeffersonian  Democrat  of  his  time. 
Mr.  Hale  was  not  much  of  a  party  man.  He  was 
not  one  of  those, — 


JOHN  P.   HALE.  81 

"Who  born  for  the  universe,  narrowed  his  mind, 
And  to  party  gave  up  what  was  meant  for  mankind." 

He  was 

"  For  a  patriot  too  cool,  for  a  drudge  disobedient, 
And  too  proud  of  the  right  to  pursue  the  expedient." 

Political  ties  always  sat  loosely  upon  him.  He 
used  party  connections  to  subserve  purposes,  and 
when  he  thought  his  duty  lay  in  another  direction 
he  burst  asunder  the  partisan  leading-strings  with- 
out compunction.  He  was  neither  a  party  leader 
nor  a  party  follower.  He  was  not  pliant;  his  mind 
was  simple  and  direct;  he  wanted  policy,  and  was 
no  more  tolerant  of  wrong  in  his  own  party  than  in 
any  other.  Hated  by  the  enemies  of  liberty  on  the 
one  hand,  he  was  assailed  by  zealots  of  freedom  on 
the  other  for  his  conciliatory  temper,  his  freedom 
from  political  acerbity,  and  his  refusal  to  endorse 
projects  of  disunion  or  any  other  extravagances. 
A  sound  discretion,  and  even  a  wise  conservatism 
governed  him.  He  loved  to  travel  super  antiquas 
vias,  and  the  precedents  of  Anglo-Saxon  freedom 
were  the  guiding  stars  of  his  political  life.  Unwill- 
ing to  go  all  length,  and  too  independent  to  submit 
to  dictation,  he  represented  no  party,  no  group 
even, — he  was  no  exponent  of  others ;  he  was  a  type 
of  himself.  Without  affecting  airs  of  independence^ 
he  was  the  most  truly  independent  man  in  America^ 
Those  of  us  who  loved  him  and  would  stand  guard 
over  his  fame,  are  not  pained  to  hear,  as  we  some- 
times do,  that  he  knew  how  to  behave  in  the  mi- 
nority much  better  than  in  the  majority. 

Mr.  Hale's  general  political  views  were  broad  and 
well  denned  and  coordinated,  and  gave  unity  of 


82  JOHN   P.    HALE. 

purpose  to  his  political  life.  His  creed  at  bottom 
was  embodied  by  Bnrke  in  his  definition  of  the 
principles  of  true  politics  as  "  those  of  morality  en- 
larged," or,  in  other  words,  that  in  politics  "  noth- 
ing is  right  that  is  not  right,  just  that  is  not  just" 
He  had  none  of  that  revolutionary  spirit  which 
rudely  breaks  with  all  the  traditions  of  the  past.  If 
there  were  contradictions  in  our  institutions,  he  was 
content  to  tolerate  them  till  the  general  conscience 
and  intelligence  should  be  awakened  to  such  anom- 
alies, and  make  those  institutions  homogeneous.  He 
was  no  innovator  or  fanatic.  He  stood  by  the  fabric 
of  the  constitution,  and  the  Union  he  reverenced 
with  a  fervor  not  surpassed  even  by  Webster  himself. 
In  this  respect,  in  his  willingness,  often  expressed, 
even  to  abide  by  and  carry  out  fairly,  honestly,  and 
in  good  faith  what  were  termed  the  compromises  of 
the  constitution,  he  differed  toto  coelo  from  Garrison, 
Phillips,  and  others  of  the  abolitionists.  Let  us  do 
justice  to  those  from  whom  Mr.  Hale  differed  in  this 
respect.  Such  was  their  view  of  the  pro-slavery 
clauses  of  the  constitution  that  they  indignantly 
spurned  them,  and  fled  for  refuge  to  that  "  higher 
law  "  which  Mr.  Webster  in  derision  said  ''  soared 
an  eagle's  flight  above  the  tops  of  the  Alleghanies." 
They  dealt  only  with  the  abstract  question  of  right, 
claimed  a  discharge  of  conscience  from  all  complicity 
with  slavery,-  and  demanded  an  immediate  and  un- 
conditional manumission. 

It  is  still  an  unsettled  question  whether  the  efforts 
of  statesmen  like  Mr.  Hale  were  hampered  by  im- 
practicable theories  of  doctrinaires  who  renounced 
political  action  as  implying  allegiance  to  a  constitu- 


JOHN  P.    HALE. 


tion  which  recognized  and  sanctioned  slavery. 
Many  regarded  these  scruples  as  puerile,  and  a  hin- 
drance to  the  progress  of  the  cause  within  constitu- 
tional and  legal  lines.  There  was,  however,  but 
little  danger  to  liberty  from  those  who  refused  to 
obey  the  fugitive  slave  law.  History  is  full  of 
proofs  that  a  disobedience  of  the  statutes  of  men 
may  imply  a  higher  and  deeper  reverence  for  the 
laws  of  God.  Admitting  the  danger  of  leaving 
citizens,  each  for  himself,  to  judge  of  the  law  and 
their  obligation  to  obey  it,  yet  those  who  are  so 
tremblingly  afraid  of  stranding  the  ship  of  state  on 
this  Scylla,  should  remember  the  awful  dangers  of 
the  Charybdis  on  the  other  side,  and  that  no  gov- 
ernment worthy  to  live  was  ever  wrecked  by  those 
who  obeyed  the  behests  of  conscience. 

We  are  not  here  to-day  to  cast  a  doubt  upon  those 
men  who  formed  the  American  Anti-Slavery  soci- 
ety, which  Mr.  Frederick  Douglass  calls  "  the  most 
efficient  generator  of  anti-slavery  sentiment  in  the 
country,"  and  whose  heroism  has  given  them  an 
enduring  place  in  history.  But,  whether  it  be  to 
his  credit  or  discredit,  it  is  certainly  true  that  Mr. 
Hale  had  little  or  no  sympathy  with  extremists; 
made  no  assaults  upon  church  or  state;  stood  aloof 
from  all  schemes  of  disunion,  and  discountenanced 
every  thought  of  disloyalty.  This  was  not  his  line 
of  thinking  or  of  action;  he  proposed  to  act  politi- 
cally in  the  Union,  by  circumscribing  slavery  and 
pressing  it  to  death  by  a  cordon  of  free  states.  Mr. 
Hale  took  the  ground  that  the  constitution  was 
essentially  an  anti-slavery  document.  The  Buffalo 
convention  of  1848  admitted  that  slavery  in  the 


84  JOHN   P.   HALE. 

states  was  protected  by  the  constitution,  and  the 
Free-Soil  party  had  no  intention  to  attack  it  where 
it  existed  under  the  sanction  of  law.  The  Free-Soil 
convention  at  Pittsburg  in  1852  neither  raised  nor 
lowered  the  standard;  and  its  lineal  successor,  the 
Republican  party,  did  not  at  all  grapple  with  eman- 
cipation in  the  states, — not  even  in  the  District  of 
Columbia, — its  whole  policy  looked  simply  to  its 
circumscription.  But  the  event  shows  how  urgent 
and  how  indispensable  was  the  need  of  a  Free-Soil 
party.  That  want  Mr.  Hale  and  others  supplied, 
no  doubt  holding,  in  solution  at  least,  the  faith 
which  Mr.  Lincoln  afterwards  so  tersely  formulated 
in  the  memorable  words :  "If  a  house  be  divided 
against  itself  it  cannot  stand.  I  believe  this  gov- 
ernment cannot  permanently  endure  half  slave  and 
half  free."  They  had  found  the  heel  of  Achilles; 
they  had  divined  the  weakness  of  slavery,  and  the 
essential  conditions  of  its  progress  and  immunity. 
Then  only  the  great  problem  approached  its  solu- 
tion when  "  no  more  slavery  extension"  became  the 
watchword  of  a  distinct  political  organization,  draw- 
ing to  itself  more  and  more  the  humane  sympathies 
and  the  generous  ardor  of  the  world. 

I  have  said  that  Mr.  Hale  stood  by  the  constitu- 
tion. So  thoroughly  loyal,  indeed,  was  he  to  that 
instrument,  that  amid  the  thunder  and  agony  of 
the  Rebellion,  he  parted  company  with  his  political 
friends  on  the  confiscation  bill,  which  he  opposed 
because  it  was  not  in  accordance  with  the  constitu- 
tion. Said  he:  "I  want  constitutional  liberty  left 
to  us  when  the  war  is  over.  Constitutional  liberty 
is  the  great  boon  for  which  we  are  striving,  and  we 


JOHN  P.   HALE.  85 

must  see  to  it  that,  in  our  zeal  to  put  down  the  Re- 
bellion, we  do  not  trample  on  that;  and,  that  when 
the  war  is  over,  and  our  streamers  float  in  the  air, 
in  that  breeze  also  may  still  float  the  old  flag,  and 
over  this  regenerated  country  may  still  sway  a 
sacred  and  un violated  constitution,  in  the  faithful 
maintenance  of  which  in  the  hour  of  our  peril  and 
our  trial  we  have  not  faltered." 

But  he  was  no  priest  of  the  constitution.  His 
divinations  were  at  another  shrine,  even  that  of 
liberty.  We  have  had  such  a  priest.  He  stands 
there,  [pointing  to  Mr.  Webster's  statue]  overlook- 
ing us  with  his  awful  solemnity,  his  brow  of  Jove, 
and  all  the  majesty  of  his  god-like  presence  to-day. 

But  with  Mr.  Hale  the  constitution  was  no  fetich. 
He  loved  it  for  what  it  was,  and  as  he  understood 
it.  He  could  reverence  it  only  for  what  it  meant; 
and,  if  shown  that  it  meant  the  perpetual  domina- 
tion of  one  race  or  class  and  the  bondage  of  another, 
he  would  have  looked  upon  it  as  the  Liberator 
proclaimed  it  in  1844,  as  "  a  covenant  with  death, 
and  an  agreement  with  hell."  If  it  meant  that,  John 
P.  Hale  could  no  more  have  obeyed  and  endured  it 
than  could  Pym  or  Hampden  the  star  chamber,  the 
collection  of  ship  money,  or  the  exactions  of  arbi- 
trary prerogative,  or  Samuel  Adams  the  enforce- 
ment of  the  stamp  act,  Luther  the  sale  of  indul- 
gences, or  Mirabeau  the  perpetual  dominance  of  the 
Bourbons.  His  was  a  higher  and  nobler  interpre- 
tation of  the  organic  law  of  our  fathers;  and,  claim- 
ing shelter  under  its  broad  aegis,  he  stood  forth  in 
defiance  of  the  delusion  of  his  time  to  assert  the 
essential  brotherhood  of  man,  and  his  right  to  the 


86  JOHN   P.    HALE. 

liberties  formulated  in  the  Declaration  of  Indepen- 
dence. In  other  days,  a  century  or  two  before,  this 
intrepid  stand  in  the  face  of  power  would  have  sub- 
jected him  to  a  glorious  imprisonment  or  to  the 
block.  But  truth  was  already  emancipated  from 
the  grosser  forms  of  tyranny.  Who  can  doubt 
that  even  if  the  old  means  of  extirpating  freedom  of 
thought  had  still  existed,  John  P.  Hale  would  have 
taken  his  life  in  his  hand,  and  proclaimed  unfalter- 
ingly the  faith  that  was  in  him,  like  John  Pym, 
who,  in  the  crisis  of  English  liberty  cried  that  he 
"  would  much  rather  suffer  for  speaking  the  truth 
than  that  the  truth  should  suffer  for  want  of  his 
speaking." 

Those  are  rightly  accounted  great  who  blaze  out 
new  pathways  for  the  race.  Says  Fronde,  "  Those 
whom  the  world  agrees  to  call  great,  are  those  who 
have  done  or  produced  something  of  permanent 
value  to  humanity."  Do  any  of  our  American 
statesmen  better  answer  this  requirement?  In  a 
great  crisis  his  was  the  initiative.  He  grappled 
single-handed  and  alone  with  the  greatest  problem 
and  the  highest  duty  of  his  time.  Slavery  lay  like 
a  night-mare  upon  the  republic,  weakening,  poison- 
ing, degrading  it,  arresting  its  development,  stifling 
its  liberty.  And  who,  we  may  well  ask,  aroused  it 
from  its  torpor,  from  the  body  of  its  death?  Who 
so  emphatically  as  he  gave  the  word  for  the  resur- 
rection of  the  true  national  spirit?  It  was  he,  in- 
deed, who  impressed  the  heart  and  brain  of  his  gen- 
eration, who  pronounced  the  right  word  at  the  right 
moment,  and  uttered  it  in  accents  that  burned  it  into- 
the  imaginations  and  feelings  of  millions.  When 


JOHN   P.  HALE.  87 

other  men  called  great  were  dallying  and  compro- 
mising, and  striking  hands  with  an  evil  with  which 
there  should  have  been  no  truce  and  no  terms,  he 
assailed  it  in  its  stronghold,  and  carried  its  strong- 
est outwork.  He  first  attuned  the  voice  of  a  state 
to  the  rhythm  of  liberty,  and  from  his  lips  first 
sounded  the  high  note  of  freedom  in  the  United 
States  senate.  And  in  that  great  body,  where  me- 
diocrity cannot  for  any  length  of  time  seize  the  palm 
of  excellence,  where  no  pretence  can  escape  detect- 
ion or  weakness  pass  for  strength,  he  maintained 
his  position  triumphantly  against  all  assailants  for 
sixteen  years.  He  mingled  in  all  the  contentions 
of  the  most  tempestuous  period  of  our  history;  one 
after  another  he  broke  lances  with  all  the  great  ac- 
tors on  the  national  scene  and  was  never  discomfited. 
He  has  left  in  the  public  records  a  body  of  utter- 
ances worthy  of  the  study  of  after-times,  made  un- 
der every  variety  of  circumstances,  under  insult  and 
contumely,  under  taunt  and  provocation;  yet  no- 
where, on  his  part,  is  there  any  recrimination,  any 
appeal  to  passion,  to  unworthy  prejudice,  to  unman- 
ly feeling;  but  every  where  and  throughout  a  genu- 
ine sincerity,  a  noble  philanthropy,  a  sublime  enthu- 
siasm for  humanity,  and  an  unswerving  faith  in  its 
ultimate  destiny.  You  shall  find  in  all  his  impass- 
ioned appeals  not  one  doubt  cast  upon  the  reality  of 
human  progress,  or  the  eventual  triumph  of  those 
principles  which  had  asserted  their  control  of  his 
political  life. 

From  a  recent  review  of  this  whole  series  of 
speeches  and  votes  in  and  out  of  the  national  arena, 
I  am  impressed  with  the  conviction  that  there  is  no 


88  JOHN   P.    HALE. 

more  honorable  and  conspicuous  record  in  American 
public  life.  It  is  a  record  marked  by  a  high  ethical 
tone,  by  conscientious  conviction,  by  fidelity  to  truth, 
by  a  standard  of  public  duty  modelled  upon  the 
best  traditions  of  Anglo-Saxon  freedom,  and  by 
maxims  drawn  from  a  wide  study  and  clear  reading 
of  the  history  of  human  liberty  and  progress  in  all 
ages.  I  go  further.  He  was  the  man  for  his  time 
and  mission.  He  had  a  message  for  his  generation, 
and,  as  much  as  any  man  ever  was  in  political  an- 
nals, was  providentially  sent  and  equipped  for  the 
great  tournament  in  which  he  played  his  part.  And 
I  add  the  further  belief  that  no  intelligent,  reflective, 
and  unprejudiced  mind,  conversant  personally  with 
the  events  of  that  time,  can  rise  from  the  study  of 
his  public  efforts  and  the  story  of  his  life,  without  the 
conviction  that  no  other  public  man  in  America  was 
equal  to  what  he  did, — that  none  had  the  peculiar 
qualities  in  so  high  a  degree  to  fill  the  great  post  to 
which  he  was  called  as  the  first  anti-slavery  senator. 
Engaged  in  the  work  of  statesmanship,  which 
largely  diverted  him  from  the  studies  and  practice 
of  his  profession,  Mr.  Hale  was  still  a  most  distin- 
guished lawyer.  He  occasionally  appeared  in  the 
courts  of  New  Hampshire  throughout  his  career; 
and  there  was  no  time  after  1840  when  his  services 
were  not  sought  in  cases  of  the  highest  importance, 
and  when  he  was  not  esteemed  to  hold  a  place  as 
an  advocate  in  the  front  rank  of  the  profession.  In 
1851  he  was  engaged  as  senior  counsel,  with  such 
lawyers  as  Dana  and  Ellis,  in  the  argument  of  the 
slave  rescue  cases  in  Boston.  In  his  recent  book 
Mr.  Dana  speaks  of  him  as  having  argued  the  case 


JOHN   P.    HALE.  89 

of  Lewis  Hayden  nobly  and  with  passages  of  great 
eloquence.  It  was  in  this  case,  in  the  defence  of 
the  rescuers  of  Shadrach,  that  occurred  that  won- 
derful burst  of  eloquence : 

"John  Debree  claims  that  he  owns  Shadrach. 
Owns  what?  Owns  a  man!  Suppose,  gentlemen, 
John  Debree  should  claim  an  exclusive  right  to  the 
sunshine,  the  moon,  or  the  stars !  Would  you  sanc- 
tion the  claim  by  your  verdict?  And  yet,  gentle- 
men, the  stars  shall  fall  from  heaven,  the  moon 
shall  grow  old  and  decay,  the  sun  shall  fail  to  give 
its  light,  the  heavens  shall  be  rolled  together  as  a 
scroll,  but  the  soul  of  the  despised  and  hunted 
Shadrach  shall  live  on  with  the  life  of  God  himself ! 
I  wonder  if  John  Debree  will  claim  that  he  owns 
him  then ! " 

In  one  of  his  letters  Mr.  Sumner  said  that  Mr. 
Hale  had  said  many  things  better  than  any  of  the 
rest  had  been  able  to  say  them,  and  referred  to  this 
speech  particularly  as  one  that  had  been  reported 
to  him  as  worthy  of  Curraii  or  Erskine. 

Still  later  he  was  leading  counsel  in  the  defence 
of  Theodore  Parker,  who  stood  indicted  for  ob- 
structing the  fugitive  slave  law  process  in  the  case 
of  Anthony  Burns.  The  trial  came  on  in  April, 
1855,  and  attracted  universal  interest.  The  indict- 
ment was  quashed  by  the  court  upon  the  argument 
of  Mr.  Hale's  associates,  and  so  odious  was  the  pros- 
ecution that  the  representatives  of  the  government 
were  only  too  eager  to  hide  themselves  from  public 
scorn  by  entering  a  nolle  prosequi  in  all  other  cases. 

But  Mr.  Parker  afterward  published  a  noble  de- 
fence, which  he  dedicated  "  to  John  Parker  Hale 


90  JOHN   P.    HALE. 

and  Charles  Mayo  Ellis,  Magnanimous  Lawyers,, 
for  their  labors  in  a  noble  profession,"  and  speaks  of 
them  as  u  generous  advocates  of  humanity,  equal- 
ling the  glories  of  Holt  andErskine,  of  Mackintosh 
and  Romilly,  in  their  eloquent  and  fearless  defence 
of  truth,  right,  and  love." 

In  this  "  Defence "  Mr.  Parker  also  refers  to 
Mr.  Hale  as  "  the  noble  advocate  of  justice  and 
defender  of  humanity,"  and  as  "  renewing  the 
virtuous  glories  of  his  illustrious  namesake,  Sir 
Matthew  Hale," — and,  again,  of  "  the  masterly 
eloquence  which  broke  out  from  the  great  human 
heart  of  my  friend,  Mr.  Hale,  and  rolled  like  the 
Mississippi  in  its  width,  its  depth,  its  beauty,  and 
its  continuous  and  unconquerable  strength." 

To  those  who  knew  Mr.  Parker,  himself  an  ora- 
tor, philanthropist,  and  one  of  the  grandest  charac- 
ters of  his  age,  such  tributes  to  Mr.  Hale's  genius 
are  an  offering  of  no  small  value,  and  not  without 
a  deep  significance. 

The  earliest  efforts  of  Mr.  Hale  announced  him 
an  orator  of  unusual  force  and  power.  Even  before 
practice  had  given  him  a  national  reputation,  he 
was  endowed  highly  with  the  gift  of  persuasion  and 
a  captivating  charm  of  manner.  He  possessed  in 
an  uncommon  degree  many  of  the  external  advan- 
tages of  a  popular  speaker, — an  imposing  person^ 
a  countenance  of  extraordinary  manly  beauty  and 
nobleness,  a  well  modulated  and  resonant  voice,  a 
prompt  command  of  words,  a  perfect  command  of 
his  temper.  His  language  was  fluent;  his  manner, 
easy,  confident,  unaffected ;  his  delivery,  impressive ; 
his  self-possession,  perfect.  His  eloquence  was 


JOHN   P.    HALE.  91 

spontaneous,  rather  than  the  fruit  of  patient  labor. 
It  yielded  to  no  rules  of  art;  it  was  clogged  and  en- 
cumbered by  no  useless  impedimenta  of  learning  or 
philosophy;  but  it  came  like  a  fountain  bursting 
from  the  earth ;  it  was  the  warm  effluence  of  a  sym- 
pathetic heart,  a  fervid  soul,  a  deep  humanity,  find- 
ing utterance  on  the  tongue,  inspiring  every  accent, 
and  informing  every  feature. 

In  the  presentation  of  a  cause  to  a  popular  audi- 
ence he  was  wellnigh  irresistible.  His  clear  and 
copious  diction,  his  imperturbable  good  nature,  his 
fairness  and  generosity,  his  apt  stories,  his  manifest 
sincerity  and  disinterestedness  cleared  all  obstacles 
from  his  path  and  gave  him  a  power  before  great 
popular  assemblies  in  which  he  had  but  few  rivals. 
Traditions  still  live  of  his  triumphs  as  a  popular 
orator  before  great  masses  of  people  under  the  open 
sky,  which  alone '  seemed  to  give  room  for  the  full 
play  of  his  faculties,  as  it  did  to  O'Connell,  as 
well  as  those  forensic  contests  where  verdicts  were 
charmed  away  from  the  leaders  of  the  bar  by  the 
sorceries  of  his  eloquent  tongue. 

He  was  the  most  natural  of  orators.  His  best 
efforts  were  short,  impassioned  improvisations,  ap- 
parently without  study  or  forethought.  He  did  not 
torment  invention  for  words.  He  affected  no  the- 
atrical attitudes,  and  was  little  solicitous  for  either 
diction  or  manner,  but  was  content  to  grasp  strong- 
ly, and  present  forcibly  and  earnestly,  the  sub- 
stance of  his  argument,  and  always  with  a  definite 
purpose  in  view. 

His  speeches  underwent  no  revision.  He  never 
cared  to  give  them  the  last  polish  of  his  pen. 


92  JOHN   P.   HALE. 

They  were  dashed  off  with  a  careless  and  negligent 
ease,  and  were  extemporary  in  the  sense  of  having 
never  been  composed  in  set  phrase,  or  laboriously 
fashioned  into  periods.  He  scattered  these  gems 
of  speech  like  a  king  whose  resources  were  as 
capricious  as  inexhaustible.  He  was  thoughtless  of 
their  fate,  and  now  they  have  to  be  laboriously 
hunted  out  from  the  columns  of  the  Congressional 
Globe,  or  of  fugitive  newspapers.  But  they  will 
repay  the  search.  If  they  are  not  marked  by  liter- 
ary finish,  they  are  instinct  with  fervent  earnest- 
ness and  impetuosity.  Everything  was  done  by  him 
without  apparent  exertion.  His  efforts  seemed  to 
flow  from  an  exuberant  fountain,  and  bore  no  marks 
of  labor  or  tension  of  mind. 

Without  any  pretensions  to  profound  learning, 
Mr.  Hale  had  those  immediate  intellectual  re- 
sources that  give  readiness  in  debate.  To  the 
very  marked  combination  of  parliamentary  talents 
already  named,  he  added  a  prodigious  memory, 
holding  his  facts  firmly  in  hand,  and  drawn  up 
ready  for  instant  mobilization.  It  would  be  a  mis- 
take to  suppose  him  lacking  in  mental  power;  he 
was  never  wanting,  when  occasion  demanded,  to 
the  logical  support  of  his  positions.  Although  he 
was  never  very  patient  of  laborious  research,  nor 
inclined  to 

"  Scorn  delights  and  live  laborious  days," 

yet  his  constitutional  learning,  especially  in  all  those 
departments  requisite  to  the  defence  of  personal 
liberty,  was  ample ;  but  what  is  better,  the  learning 
he  had  was  aglow  with  vitality,  always  at  the  com- 


JOHN  P.    HALE.  93 

mand  of  a  tenacious  memory,  and  warmed  by  his 
eager  blood  and  intellectual  vehemence.  If  any 
doubt  his  great  ability,  even  when  stripped  of  the 
glamour  of  oratory,  let  him  carefully  read  his 
speeches  on  the  constitutional  status  of  slavery,  the 
Dred  Scott  decision,  the  supreme  court,  and  the  re- 
peal of  the  fugitive  slave  law.  He  sustained  him- 
self with  ease  in  the  senate  in  competition  with  the 
giants  of  debate,  and  did  all  with  such  good  nature 
as  to  provoke  no  hatred  or  personal  violence.  He 
went  in  and  out  unarmed  amid  the  murderous  as- 
sassins of  slavery,  holding  aloft  the  banner  of  free- 
dom, "  still  full  high  advanced,"  till  Chase  and 
Sumner,  Seward  and  Wade  came  and  interlocked 
their  shields  with  his,  and  the  invincible  phalanx  of 
Liberty  was  never  broken. 

I  am  at  a  loss  to  compare  John  P.  Hale  with  any 
other  orator.  In  the  spontaneous  and  easy  play  of 
extraordinary  natural  powers  he  was  not  unlike 
Fox,  the  great  English  orator  and  statesman.  Nor 
was  he  unlike  that  greatest  debater  that  ever  lived 
in  the  vehement  rush  and  torrent  of  his  declama- 
tion; and  hearing  him  sometimes,  when  he  rose 
almost  above  competition  in  bursts  of  indescribable 
power,  we  seemed  to  realize  Person's  meaning 
when  he  said, — "  Mr.  Pitt  conceives  his  sentences 
before  he  utters  them.  Mr.  Fox  throws  himself  into 
the  middle  of  his  and  leaves  it  to  God  Almighty 
to  get  him  out  again."  So  it  was  with  Mr.  Hale. 
He  soared  to  the  most  adventurous  heights  of  elo- 
quence ;  but,  when  you  were  trembling  for  his  fall, 
he  always  came  safely  to  earth  again  from  the  most 
daring  flight,  and  alighted  on  his  feet,  the  orator  of 


94  JOHN   P.   HALE. 

common  sense,  of  shrewd  mother-wit,  of  homely 
and  commonplace  illustration,  as  well  as  the  emo- 
tional, kindling  orator  of  enthusiasm,  his  heart  on 
fire,  and  his  lips  touched  with  a  divine  flame. 

But,  after  all,  there  is  in  every  great  orator  a 
something  indescribable,  a  something  peculiar  to 
himself,  which  differentiates  him  from  all  others. 
Mr.  Hale  imitated  no  one,  and  was  himself  inimit- 
able, though  he  had  studied  the  great  orators  of 
antiquity,  and  had  kindled  his  torch  at  the  altar 
of  Chatham  and  Burke,  Fox  and  Erskine.  His 
spontaneous  style,  not  formed  by  extensive  reading, 
and  able  to  dispense  with  a  critical  literary  knowl- 
edge, was  not  like  that  of  Burke  or  Gladstone,  but 
resembled  more  the  splendid  oratory  of  John  Bright, 
an  instrument  capable  of  sounding  all  the  depths  of 
passionate  emotion,  of  touching  the  deepest  chords 
of  human  feeling,  and  of  lighting  up  the  sentiments 
of  freedom  with  unspeakable  pathos  and  splendor. 

But  if,  as  all  its  true  devotees  do,  we  ascribe  to 
eloquence  a  heavenly  origin,  and  give  it  that  office 
which  so  wins  our  hearts,  if  we  say  that  no  man  is 
ever  a  true  orato:  without  being  the  spokesman  of 
some  great  cause,  that  God  touches  no  man's  lips 
with  that  celestial  fire  without  intending  thereby  to 
burn  up  some  giant  wrong,  how  nobly  does  Mr. 
Hale  fill  the  character!  Who,  in  this  sense,  among 
all  our  historic  Americans,  was  truer  to  his  divine 
appointment  than  he? 

Mr.  Hale  was  unique  in  this,  that  much  of 
his  effectiveness  as  a  speaker  was  due  to  his 
overflowing  wit  and  humor.  His  quick  percep- 
tions, genial  temperament,  and  acute  sense  of  the 


JOHN   P.    HALE.  95 

ludicrous  made  him  a  natural  humorist.  In  repar- 
tee he  was  incomparable,  and  his  apt  and  homely 
illustrative  stories  enlivened  the  United  States 
senate  for  sixteen  years.  An  ardent  admirer  of 
Mr.  Hale  most  happily  says, — "  The  jests  which 
lightened  his  public  addresses  were  not,  however, 
without  their  disadvantages.  They  sometimes  gave 
an  impression  of  levity  which  formed  no  part  of  his 
character.  As  there  is  in  art  an  ignoble  and  a 
noble  grotesque,  and  in  poetry  a  sardonic  and  a 
just  yet  not  malignant  satire,  so  there  is  in  oratory 
a  humor  which  degrades  and  another  which 
attracts  to  uplift  the  hearer.  This  was  the  humor 
of  our  orator;  like  the  wit  of  Lincoln,  it  was  always 
serious  in  its  application,  an  instrument  for  noble 
appeal  or  impressive  illustration,  a  foil  for  grave 
discourse  or  earnest  invocation." 

It  would  be  pleasant  to  recall  some  of  those 
sayings  of  his  which  so  illustrated  his  good  nat- 
ure and  broad  catholicity  of  spirit,  while  they 
drove  home  some  truth  as  no  other  means  could. 
For  instance,  he  compared  statesmen  who  were 
afraid  to  oppose  the  Mexican  War  to  the  West- 
ern man  who  said  he  "  got  caught  by  opposing 
the  last  war,  and  he  didn't  mean  to  get  caught 
again;  he  intended  now  to  go  for  war,  pestilence, 
and  famine." 

Speaking  of  President  Folk's  back-down  in  the 
Oregon  treaty,  he  said,  "  The  president  exhibited  a 
Christian  meekness  in  the  full  scriptural  degree; 
but  he  did  n't  inherit  the  blessing  of  the  meek — he 
didn't  get  the  land." 

He   said, — "As  to  whether   the  Missouri  com- 


96  JOHN    P.    HALE. 

promise  had,  as  claimed,  given  peace  to  the  coun- 
try, he  didn't  know  how  that  might  be,  but  he 
knew  that  it  gave  peace  to  the  politicians  who 
voted  for  it.  It  sent  them  down  to  their  polit- 
ical graves,  where  they  have  rested  in  peace  ever 
since.  It  settled  them,  if  it  did  n't  settle  the  coun- 
try." 

Senator  Westcott  called  him  to  order,  but  in- 
formed him  that  he  meant  nothing  personal.  Mr. 
Hale  said,  "  I  am  exceedingly  obliged  to  the 
senator  for  his  explanation.  The  question  of  order 
has  been  raised  but  twice  since  I  have  had  the 
honor  of  a  seat  in  the  senate,  and  each  time  it  was 
raised  by  the  senator  from  Florida  upon  the  sena- 
tor from  New  Hampshire.  That  satisfies  me  that 
there  is  nothing  personal  about  the  matter." 

Mr.  Clemens,  in  a  violent  speech,  asserted  that 
the  Union  was  already  dissolved.  Mr.  Hale  good- 
humoredly  replied  that  it  would  be  very  comforting 
to  many  timid  people  to  find  that  the  dissolution  of 
the  Union  had  taken  place  and  they  did  n't  know 
it.  "  Once  in  my  life,"  said  he,  "  in  the  capacity  of 
a  justice  of  the  peace,  I  was  called  on  to  officiate  in 
uniting  a  couple  in  the  bonds  of  matrimony.  I 
asked  the  man  if  he  would  take  the  woman  to  be 
his  wedded  wife.  He  replied,  '  To  be  sure;  I  came 
here  to  do  that  very  thing.'  I  then  put  the  ques- 
tion to  the  woman, — whether  she  would  have  the 
man  for  her  husband,  and,  when  she  answered  in 
the  affirmative,  I  told  them  that  they  were  husband 
and  wife.  She  looked  up  with  apparent  astonish- 
ment, and  inquired,  'Is  that  all?'  'Yes,'  said  I, 
'  that  is  all.'  ( Well,'  said  she,  '  it  is  n't  such  a 


JOHN   P.   HALE.  97 

mighty  affair  as  I  expected  it  to  be,  after  all.'  If 
this  Union  is  already  dissolved,  it  has  produced 
less  commotion  in  the  act  than  I  expected." 

In  reply  to  Mr.  Calhonn's  complaint  that  the 
Missouri  compromise  had  disturbed  the  equilibrium 
of  the  country,  he  said  that  it  had  disturbed  no 
equilibrium  but  that  of  the  JsTorthern  representa- 
tives who  voted  for  it;  that  it  threw  them  entirely 
off  their  equilibrium,  which  they  hadn't  regained 
yet,  and  never  would. 

General  Cass,  in  December,  1856,  hoped  God,  in 
His  mercy,  would  interpose  in  this  slavery  question 
before  it  was  too  late.  Mr.  Hale  interjected,  "He 
came  pretty  near  it  in  the  last  election,"  whereupon 
General  Cass  was  greatly  shocked  at  the  levity  of  so 
referring  to  the  Supreme  Being. 

Garrett  Davis  introduced  a  resolution  that  "  ~No 
negro,  or  person  whose  mother  or  grandmother  was 
a  negro,  should  be  a  citizen  of  the  United  States." 
Mr.  Hale  said,  if  in  order,  he  would  like  to  amend 
by  putting  in  his  great-grandmother  also.  Of 
course  Mr.  Davis  was  highly  indignant  at  such 
buffoonery  on  a  sacred  subject. 

The  records  are  full  of  such  pleasantries  as 
these,  which  had  a  cutting  edge  of  truth,  but 
contributed  not  a  little  to  allay  the  irritation  and 
soften  the  asperities  of  debate.  But  Mr.  Hale 
never  indulged  in  personalities.  He  was  a  gen- 
tleman from  the  heart  out.  There  was  no  bit- 
terness in  his  jests.  He  threw  no  poisoned  arrows. 
He  struck  without  hatred  or  malignity,  and  his 
blows  left  no  ranklings  and  no  immedicable  wounds 
behind. 


98  JOHN    P.    HALE. 

"  His  wit  in  the  combat,  as  gentle  as  bright, 
Ne'er  carried  a  heart  stain  away  on  its  blade." 

Consequently,  when  he  retired  from  the  senate,  he 
had  as  warm  friends  south  as  north  of  the  line,  and 
among  them  was  one  who  had  learned  to  hold  him 
in  a  high  personal  esteem,  the  learned  and  eloquent 
Henry  S.  Foote,  of  Mississippi. 

But  little  remains  to  be  added  to  the  record  of 
Mr.  Hale's  public  life.  In  March,  1865,  he  was  ap- 
pointed, by  Mr.  Lincoln,  minister  to  Spain.  This 
was  a  service  suited  neither  to  his  temper,  his  taste, 
nor  his  capacity.  He  had  cultivated  no  drawing- 
room  arts  ;  he  knew  nothing  of  the  assiduities  of 
ante-chambers ;  he  was  incapable  of  intrigue  or 
flattery ;  he  was  as  free  from  servility  as  from 
arrogance ;  he  had  not  merely  a  speculative  lik- 
ing for,  but  he  was  a  practical  exemplification  of, 
democratic  principles.  The  oratorical  tempera- 
ment, which  he  possessed  in  so  high  a  degree, 
harmonizes  not  with  the  cunning  or  even  the 
unsleeping  and  tireless  discretion  of  diplomacy, 
whose  methods  were  foreign  to  the  guileless  frank- 
ness of  that  noble  nature. 

In  the  heat  of  the  hour,  when  Mr.  Hale  broke 
from  allegiance  to  his  party,  and  espoused  the 
cause  of  the  slave,  he  was  the  object  of  ungenerous 
imputations  and  even  rancorous  abuse.  But  party 
feelings  seldom  survive  the  generation  they  control, 
and  the  little  hatred  that  had  been  mingled  with 
these  accusations  had  been  outlived.  But, 

"Be  thou  as  chaste  as  ice,  and  pure  as  snow, 
Thou  shalt  not  escape  calumny." 


JOHN    P.   HALE. 

In  his  new  position  abroad,  his  ignorance  of  the 
language  of  the  country,  and  the  amiability  of  his 
character,  involved  him  temporarily  in  the  toils  of 
an  adventurer.  He  had  what  some  one  has  called 
*'  a  want  of  clear  sharp-sightedness  as  to  others," 
and  was  exposed  constantly  to  the  arts  of  schemers 
and  self-seekers.  The  mistakes  of  his  life,  which 
subjected  him  to  unfounded  aspersions,  all  arose 
out  of  his  ingenuous  and  generous  trust  in  others 
who  were  unworthy  of  his  confidence.  He  became 
for  a  brief  moment  the  victim  of  the  calumnies  of  an 
unworthy  subordinate,  who  had  compromised  him, 
as  he  had  attempted  the  ruin  of  his  predecessors  in 
the  same  way, — one  of  those  Jesuitical  reptiles  that 
infest  the  diplomatic  purlieus  of  Europe,  and  wrig- 
gle in  and  out  of  the  ante-chambers  of  royalty. 
For  a  time,  as  Burke  said,  "  the  hunt  of  obloquy 
pursued  him  with  full  cry."  The  shafts  fell  really 
harmless  at  his  feet,  but  the  injustice  done  him  tem- 
porarily by  some  venomous  newspapers  embittered 
his  own  last  days,  and  clouds  the  memory  of  his 
friends. 

I  disdain  to  enter  upon  the  vindication  of  the  in- 
tegrity of  a  man  who  was  careless,  generous,  of 
simple  habits,  who  neglected  his  own  interests,  was 
indifferent  to  money,  and  who  with  abundant  oppor- 
tunities to  enrich  himself,  had  he  been  base  enough 
to  use  them,  neither  made  nor  spent,  nor  left  a  for- 
tune,— the  man  who  was  content  to  tread  a  thorny 
road;  whose  life  was  one  of  plain  living  and  high 
thinking  for  himself  and  his  family;  whose  face,  one 
of  the  noblest  I  have  ever  looked  upon,  was  itself  a 
refutation  of  calumny;  whose  heart  was  as  open  as 


100  JOHN   P.   HALE. 

the  day;  and  whose  integrity,  shining  like  a  star  in 
the  dark  night  of  our  country's  trial,  was  "the  im- 
mediate jewel  of  his  soul." 

But  I  rest  his  exoneration  not  there — not  upon 
such  moral  certainties  as  triumphantly  satisfy  his 
friends:  but  his  defence,  if  defence  were  needed, 
may  be  rested  upon  legal  proofs  that  will  con- 
vince any  court  or  jury  of  his  absolute  innocence. 
I  have  examined  the  whole  case,  and  others  of 
more  authority  than  I,  and  I  aver  that  the  evi- 
dence against  John  P.  Hale  of  any  conscious 
dereliction  of  duty,  anywhere,  or  at  any  time,  is 
lighter  and  more  unsubstantial  than  the  summer 
zephyrs  that  float  among  these  tree-tops  over  our 
heads;  and  that,  according  to  all  the  canons  of  evi- 
dence in  such  inquiries,  in  that  blameless  life,  public 
and  private,  there  was  nothing  in  the  face  of  which 
he  might  not  hold  his  head  erect  before  the  bar  of 
God! 

His  career  was  drawing  to  a  close.  He  remained 
abroad  five  years,  the  last  being  spent  with  his  fam- 
ily in  travel  on  the  continent,  and  in  the  vain  hope 
of  recruiting  his  shattered  energies.  His  health, 
never  good  since  the  National  Hotel  sickness  in 
1857,  of  which  he  was  a  victim,  had  now  become 
seriously  impaired,  and  he  came  home  in  1870  with 
a  broken  constitution.  He  was  welcomed  on  his 
return  with  formal  receptions  by  his  neighbors  at 
home  and  by  the  legislature,  of  which  a  conqueror 
might  have  been  proud.  He  lingered  with  us  for 
three  years  afterwards,  but  with  strength  gone  past 
recovery,  and  one  ill  following  another  made  his 
last  days  painful  ones.  As  one  of  his  eulogists 


JOHN   P.    HALE.  101 

grandly  said,  "  He  was  like  a  war-frigate  which  lies 
in  port  in  peaceful  times,  its  mighty  armament  and 
its  scarred  bulwarks  only  suggestive  of  stormy  days 
when  its  ports  were  up,  and  its  great  guns  dealt 
havoc  upon  the  foe." 

At  length,  on  the  19th  of  ^Tovember,  1873,  the 
worn-out  gladiator  of  freedom  "  fell  on  sleep,"  and 
joined  the  great  company  of  his  co-workers  in  all 
ages — the  servant  of  God  passed  to  "  where  beyond 
these  voices  there  is  peace." 

I  have  spoken  mainly  of  the  public  life  of  Mr. 
Hale.  But  to  his  friends  there  seems  something 
lacking  in  the  sketch  of  a  man  so  much  loved  and 
admired,  without  analyzing  his  character  a  little 
more  closely,  and  drawing  a  portrait  of  somewhat 
warmer  coloring,  as  befits  his  noble  nature.  Some- 
times a  nearer  view  of  public  men  diminishes  the 
admiration  and  reverence  we  feel  at  a  distance. 
Not  so  with  Mr.  Hale.  His  dearest  place  was  in 
the  hearts  of  his  friends.  Those  who  knew  him  in 
his  domestic  privacy,  or  where  the  statesman  was 
sunk  in  the  social  intercourse  of  friendship,  most 
unreservedly  loved  him,  and  speak  in  fullest  admi- 
ration of  his  virtues  and  his  genius.  His  morals 
were  pure  without  austerity,  and  his  life  exem- 
plary by  its  observance  of  every  detail  of  duty, 
whether  it  involved  the  active  exertion  of  influ- 
ence for  good,  or  abstinence  from  everything  evil 
and  not  of  good  report.  He  was  exempt  from 
social  and  personal  vices.  In  1852  he  said  in  the 
senate,  "  I  have  not  tasted  a  drop  of  spirits  for 
twenty  years,"  and  he  never  afterwards  departed 
from  that  principle. 


102  JOHN   P.    HALE. 

In  religion  he  was  a  liberal.  He  was  averse  to 
external  ceremonies,  and  his  love  of  personal  inde- 
pendence made  him  jealous  of  every  kind  of  eccle- 
siasticism.  His  religion  was  a  matter  between  him- 
self and  his  God.  As  Burnet  said  of  Sydney,  "  He 
was  a  Christian,  but  a  Christian  in  his  own  way." 
Let  none  doubt  for  a  moment,  however,  the  essen- 
tial reverence  of  spirit  of  this  free-thinking  soul.  If 
ever  man  had  the  Unseen  but  Indwelling  Presence, 
if  ever  man  was  governed  by  those  great  invisible 
moral  sanctions  that  we  are  wont  to  call  the  laws  of 
God,  if  ever  man  had  the  faith  which  connected 
him  with  powers  above  him,  but  which  he  felt  work- 
ing through  him,  it  was  John  P.  Hale.  Sweetness, 
and  light,  and  love,  were  indeed  his  creed  and  his 
practice.  He  went  forth  to  the  duties  of  life  "  as 
ever  in  his  great  Taskmaster's  eye," — 

"  He  went  in  the  strength  of  dependence 

To  tread  where  his  Master  trod, 
To  gather  and  knit  together 

The  family  of  Go:l ; 
With  a  conscience  freed  from  burdens, 

And  a  heart  set  free  from  care, 
To  minister  to  every  one, 

Always  and  everywhere." 

Endowed  with  noble  gifts,  Mr.  Hale  had  what 
was  greater,  an  aggressively  noble  character.  He 
never  cringed  to  power.  He  never  sold  himself  for 
a  vulgar  or  temporary  applause.  He  was  never 
false  to  his  convictions;  and  he  always  had  convic- 
tions. He  didn't  crawl  and  sneak  through  the 
world — he  never  lapped  himself  in  that  comfortable 
indifference  to  the  moral  law  which  is  the  devil's 


JOHN  P.   HALE.  103 

easy  chair  in  which  he  hypnotizes  the  human  con- 
science for  a  base  acquiescence  in  wrong  and 
iniquity. 

His  principles  were  rooted  in  his  character, 
and  had  an  organic  growth, — and  he  lived  as  if  he 
had  taken  holy  orders  in  their  service.  He  was 
essentially  a  reformer,  and  had  the  courage  to 
stand  alone,  which  is  the  first  requisite  of  leader- 
ship in  a  great  cause.  The  blandishments  of  power 
had  no  attractions,  and  no  terrors  for  him.  He 
might  have  sat  at  the  right  hand  of  the  throne,  but 
disdainfully  rejected  the  temptation,  and  held  fast 
to  his  principles  and  his  integrity.  He  perilled  his 
political  career  to  resist  the  further  advance  of 
slavery.  His  courage  was  superb;  he  never 
quailed  before  the  face  of  man.  He  would  have 
been  equal  to  martyrdom,  and  would  have  gone  to 
the  block  saying  with  Sydney,  "  Grant  that  I  may 
die  glorifying  Thee  that  at  the  last  Thou  hast  per- 
mitted me  to  be  singled  out  as  a  witness  of  Thy 
truth,  and,  even  by  the  confession  of  my  opposers, 
for  that  old  cause  in  which  I  was  from  my  youth 
engaged." 

To  him  the  service  of  liberty  was  neither  prosaic 
nor  perfunctory.  It  gave  zest  to  his  life.  A  strain 
of  high  devotion  runs  like  a  nerve  of  fire  through 
all  his  public  efforts.  He  had  deeply  pondered 
upon  Sir  Henry  Vane,  Algernon  Sydney,  Pym  and 
Hampden,  Bradshaw  and  Henry  Martin,  and  the 
great  judges  who  had  stood  for  the  liberty  of  the 
subject  against  kingly  prerogative;  and  no  man 
was  more  deeply  imbued  with  free  principles — not 
the  loose  and  unsandalled  vagaries  of  the  French 


104  JOHN   P.    HALE. 

Revolution,  not  the  wild  passions  of  communism 
or  sans  cullottism,  but  the  fundamental  maxims 
which  had  found  expression  in  Magiia  Charta,  the1 
petition  of  right,  the  execution  of  Charles  Stuart, 
the  deposition  of  James,  and  the  bringing  over  of 
the  Prince  of  Orange,  the  writ  of  habeas  corpus, 
and  the  trial  by  jury,  the  great  landmarks  and 
muniments  of  English  liberty,  guarded  and  regu- 
lated by  law.  These  were  his  ideals,  the  stern 
leaders  of  political  thought  and  action  in  the  days 
of  the  Commonwealth  and  of  antiquity. 

He  surpassed  all  the  men  I  have  known  in  love 
of  Nature  in  all  her  varying  scenes  and  moods. 
His  soul  was  open  to  every  divine  influence.  He 
was  the  friend  and  familiar  of  birds  and  flowers, 
mountains,  trees,  and  streams.  Never  was  there  a 
more  enraptured  lover  of  natural  scenery;  none 
who  from  the  hilltops  more  lovingly  drank  in  the 
clouds  and  the  landscapes,  the  song  of  the  stream- 
let, the  kindling  star,  the  full  glory  of  the  noontide 
sun.  What  a  reverent  observer  and  worshipper  of 
nature  he  was!  His  eye  kindled  and  his  bosom 
swelled  as  he  beheld  the  pillars  of  the  forest,  the 
arches  of  the  sky,  the  gray  cliffs  and  shadowy 
cones  of  the  mountains,  and  listened  to  the  roll  of 
the  unresting  and  unsearchable  sea.  Every  spot 
about  his  home  was  familiar  ground  to  him,  and 
his  friends,  one  by  one,  under  his  lead,  had  to  climb 
to  the  top  of  every  mountain  and  hill  within  its 
horizon.  He  loved  New  Hampshire,  and  every 
hour  he  was  absent  from  it  is  the  public  service  his 
heart  was  still  "  in  the  highlands."  His  familiarity 
with  natural,  local,  and  family  history  gave  an 


JOHN   P.   HALE.  105 

uncommon  charm  to  his  easy  conversational  pow- 
ers, and  made  his  companionship  delightful. 

How  can  those  who  lived  on  terms  of  intimacy 
with  Mr.  Hale  convey  to  others  any  adequate  im- 
pression of  the  attractive  human  traits  that  shone 
out  in  his  daily  intercourse?  Those  who  knew  him 
in  his  prime,  and  before  sickness  had  rusted  the 
Damascus  blade,  dearly  remember  his  easy  acces- 
sibility, his  hospitable  mind,  his  apposite  stories, 
and  his  rich  fund  of  wit  and  anecdote.  He  was  not 
simply  loftily  interested  in  mankind,  but  his  heart 
went  out  to  every  man,  woman,  and  child  in  the 
concrete.  How  well  his  townsmen  knew  this,  and 
how  heartily  they  loved  and  admired  him  for  his 
unaffected  interest  in  their  personal  welfare,  their 
health,  their  children,  their  business,  their  pleasures, 
their  plans,  and  hopes,  and  fears.  In  early  life  his 
mind  had  been  promoted,  but  his  heart  never  rose 
above  the  ranks.  He  had  a  warm  sympathy  with 
humanity  in  all  its  phases — 

"  No  fetter  but  galled  his  wrist, 
No  wrong  that  was  not  his  own." 

He  was  a  faithful  friend,  and  assisted  those  he 
thought  deserving,  or  who  managed  to  ingratiate 
themselves  into  his  confidence  or  his  sympathies. 
Xot  infrequently  he  was  the  dupe  of  the  designing, 
but  such  mistakes  never  chilled  his  philanthropy, 
nor  closed  his  purse  or  his  heart  against  the  appeal 
of  distress,  whether  genuine  or  counterfeit. 

At  home,  as  at  Washington,  he  was  the  un- 
bought  counsel  and  defender  of  innocence,  and  no 
calculating  spirit  was  ever  the  mainspring  of  his 


106  JOHN   P.   HALE. 

action.  Milton  had  a  forecast  of  his  character 
when  he  wrote  of  Bradshaw, — "  If  the  cause  of 
the  oppressed  was  to  be  defended,  if  the  favor  or 
the  violence  of  the  great  was  to  be  withstood,  it 
was  impossible  in  that  case  to  find  an  advocate 
more  intrepid  or  more  eloquent,  whom  no  threats, 
no  terrors,  and  no  rewards  could  seduce  from  the 
plain  path  of  rectitude." 

Such  a  man  could  gain  but  little  of  this  world's 
possessions.  He  cared  less  for  what  he  should 
leave  than  for  what  he  should  take  writh  him;  and 
he  held  unaltered  to  the  end  this  noble  conception 
of  the  use  and  duty  of  life,  its  consecration  to 
helpful  service  for  mankind,  and  for  the  poor,  and 
weak,  and  oppressed,  above  all  others. 

In  the  still  more  intimate  privacies  of  his  own 
home  he  was  the  endeared  centre  of  a  family  circle 
to  which  he  was  devotedly  attached  throughout  a 
stormy  and  exciting  political  career,  whose  stead- 
fast love  supported,  and  whose  tenderness  soothed 
him  to  the  last.  In  him  the  sentiment  of  home  and 
family  was  strong  and  beautiful.  How  pleasant  he 
was  in  that  circle!  All  admitted  there  felt  the 
sweetness  of  his  temper,  the  easy  gentleness  of  his 
manners,  and  the  charm  of  his  society.  He  told  a 
story  with  a  grace  snatched  beyond  the  reach  of 
art,  and  never  one  anywhere  that  would  sully  the 
tongue  or  the  imagination  of  a  maiden.  Who  that 
knew  him  there  can  ever  forget  his  perfect  natural- 
ness, his  frankness  and  sociability,  his  womanly 
tenderness,  his  delicacy  of  speech  and  conduct,  his 
playfulness,  his  absent-mindedness,  his  childlike 
simplicities  and  whimsical  oddities,  coming  out  in 


JOHN   P.   HALE.  107 

his  liking  for  old  ways  and  old  places,  and  for  this 
or  that  bizarre  article  of  food,  or  drink,  or  raiment? 
Beautifully  does  the  admirer  already  quoted  say, 
"  These  are  some  of  the  traits  which  made  us  often 
forget  in  the  man  and  the  friend  even  that  public 
record  of  patriotism  and  services  for  humanity 
which  places  him  first  in  the  proud  roll  of  the  dis- 
tinguished sons  of  ~New  Hampshire." 

Such  was  the  man  who  so  bore  his  great  com- 
mission in  his  look,  and  so  nobly  filled  the  ideal  of 
a  knight-errant  of  liberty  that  Marshall  P.  Wilder 
most  appropriately  introduced  him  at  the  New 
Hampshire  festival  in  Boston  in  1854  as  "  the 
very  embodiment  and  incarnation  of  human  free- 
dom,"— the  man  in  whom  the  microscopic  power 
of  slander  could  find  no  spot  of  impurity,  and  who, 
God  be  thanked  for  such  a  statesman  in  the  nine- 
teenth century, — 

"  Through  all  the  tract  of  years 
Wore  the  white  flower  of  a  blameless  life." 

There  is  no  exaggeration  in  this  description  of 
Mr.  Hale.  I  know  it  is  the  voice  of  affection,  and 
of  a  domestic  grief  not  yet  entirely  assuaged. — 

''  Ars  lit  ina in  mores  animumque  effingere  potest, 
Pulchrior  in  terris  nulla  tabella  foret." 

It  would  be  unworthy  the  occasion,  the  theme, 
the  audience,  to  sketch  the  character  of  Mr.  Hale 
in  any  other  spirit  or  colors  than  those  of  truth  and 
discrimination-  and  yet,  in  delineating  him,  some- 
thing must  be  yielded  to  the  partiality  of  private 
friendship.  God  forbid  that  we  should  ever  fail 


JOHN   P.    HALE. 

to  dwell  on  the  virtues  of  our  friends,  and  throw 
the  mantle  of  charity  over  their  frailties.  Although 
none  could  know  him  truly  without  a  warm  admira- 
tion for  his  noble  character,  I  know  how  valueless  is 
mere  indiscriminate  panegyric.  No  character  is 
flawless,  and  like  other  men  Mr.  Hale  had  his  limi- 
tations. Nor  do  I  mean  to  deny  the  proper  meed 
of  praise  to  the  other  great  actors  of  his  time, — 

"  Vixere  fortes  ante  Agamemnona 
Multi." 

Most  of  these  are  now  passed  away,  and  there  is 
no  reason  for  restraint,  but  we  may  speak  with 
posthumous  frankness.  Undeniably  the  historians 
of  the  period  have  not  ascribed  to  John  P.  Hale 
that  part  in  the  things  accomplished  in  his  time  to 
which  he  is  really  entitled.  "  On  Kansas  soil," 
says  ex-Gov.  Robinson  in  his  recent  book,  "  was 
gained  the  first  decisive  victory  against  the  Slave 
Power  of  this  nation."  Not  so.  More  than  ten  years 
before  the  Kansas  conflict,  the  first  strong  outwork 
of  slavery  was  carried  in  no  insignificant  battle,  and 
John  P.  Hale,  its  leader,  became  the  first  anti-slav- 
ery senator, — not  by  accident,  but  by  the  might  of 
his  own  invincible  arm  and  indomitable  heart,  in  a 
hand-to-hand  struggle  in  a  state  that  up  to  that 
gallant  fight  had  been  the  very  citadel  of  South- 
ern slavery.  Yet  this  fact  has  been  persistently 
ignored,  his  name  and  fame  have  been  treated  with 
a  studied  neglect,  and  those  who  came  in  at  a  later 
day,  some  even  at  the  eleventh  hour,  have  suc- 
ceeded in  reaping  the  glory  and  the  reward  of  the 
movement  to  which  he  gave  the  first  impulse  and 


JOHN   P.   HALE.  109 

impetus.  I  distinctly  insist  that  he  it  was  who  won 
the  first  political  success,  and  who  has  a  valid  his- 
torical claim  to  pioneership  in  the  great  uprising 
which  terminated  slavery.  Doubtless  its  doom  was 
written  in  the  book  of  fate ;  doubtless  others  would 
have  come  and  set  the  ball  in  motion ;  but  certainly 
he  did  come,  and  it  is  as  unreasonable  and  unjust  to 
deny  to  him  the  credit  as  to  deny  to  Luther  that  of 
the  Reformation,  or  to  Sam  Adams  and  Franklin 
that  of  the  Revolution. 

The  state,  among  whose  lofty  mountains  freedom 
loves  to  rear  her  mighty  children,  rescues  him 
to-day  from  this  neglect,  and  demands  for  him  the 
recognition  of  history  to  which  he  is  entitled,  as  one 
who  early  announced  and  clearly  formulated  the 
principles  upon  which  the  victory  was  finally  won. 
If  elsewhere  this  injustice  to  a  great  man  is  contin- 
ued, it  shall  not  be  without  protest  in  New  Hamp- 
shire, for  we  announce  by  a  solemn  public  act  that 
John  P.  Hale  should  stand  on  the  pages  of  history 
foremost  among  the  champions  of  liberty,  to  whom 
America  owes  her  emancipation  from  slavery. 
Neither  John  P.  Hale  nor  New  Hampshire  shall  be 
shut  out  hereafter  from  primacy  in  the  successful 
effort  to  rescue  the  republic  from  the  talons  of  this 
bird  of  prey. 

And  so,  with  all  the  ceremony  and  demonstra- 
tion of  respect  which  the  presence  of  the  official 
dignitaries  of  the  state,  its  culture  and  its  worth, 
can  lend  to  so  imposing  an  occasion — in  the  pres- 
ence also  of  official  representatives  of  the  two 
cities  where  Mr.  Hale  drew  his  first  and  his  latest 
breath,  where  he  was  born  and  where  he  had  his 


110  JOHN   P.   HALE. 

home  till  the  last,  and  in  whose  soil  he  was  finally 
laid  to  his  rest,  whose  representatives  are  most 
appropriately  here  and  commissioned  to  assist  in 
this  tribute  of  honor  and  of  justice  to  their  most 
eminent  son  and  most  beloved  citizen ;  in  this  pres- 
ence and  in  that  of  some  of  the  veteran  coadjutors 
of  Mr.  Hale  who,  at  his  call,  buckled  on  their  armor 
and  fought  with  him  the  good  fight  for  liberty;  in 
the  honored  presence,  also,  of  some  of  the  renowned 
champions  of  freedom  in  the  United  States,  who  are 
here  to  give  the  dignity  and  authority  of  their 
names  to  this  observance — and  in  the  presence  of 
that  still  unbroken  family  circle  that  loved  him 
most  on  earth, — we  place  this  great  man  here  in 
the  goodly  company  of  Webster  and  Stark,  all 
men  of  distinct  types,  differing  as  the  stars  differ 
in  glory, — the  expounder  of  the  constitution,  the 
tribune  of  liberty,  and  t'he  hero  of  the  Revolution 
on  the  field  of  battle.  We  set  up  their  effigies 
here  in  token  of  our  reverence  for  their  separate 
and  conjoined  excellencies  of  Character  and  achieve- 
ment. 

"  It  is  at  the  tombs  of  great  men  that  succeeding 
generations  kindle  the  lamp  of  patriotism."  A 
nation  is  known  by  its  ideals,  and  by  such  memori- 
als as  this  we  realize  the  continuity  as  well  as  the 
immortality  of  human  excellence  in  the  universe. 
The  stream  of  humanity  is  unbroken.  There  is  no 
real  line  between  the  living  and  the  dead. 

"  There  is 

One  great  society  alone  on  earth, 
The  noble  Living  and  the  noble  Dead." 


JOHN   P.    HALE.  Ill 

The  waves  of  human  life  come  and  go;  they 
dash  against  and  sweep  away  what  have  been 
esteemed  the  proudest  monuments  of  human  exer- 
tion, but  they  will  not  wash  away  the  works  that 
have  been  built  up  and  founded  upon  the  rock  of 
human  love  and  fidelity.  These  will  remain  when 
not  one  stone  shall  be  left  upon  another  of  the  tem- 
ples erected  to  merely  intellectual  or  military 
renown;  and  in  the  expansion  of  the  moral  horizon 
that  comes  to  successive  generations,  posterity 
shall  preserve  and  cherish  the  memory  of  every  true 
man  who  has  connected  his  name  with  some  step  in 
the  progress  of  the  race. 

When  the  passions  and  prejudices  aroused  by  the 
contest  against  slavery  shall  have  died  away;  when 
we  are  farther  away  from  the  calculating  spirit  of 
family,  and  local,  and  coterie  partiality  and  selfish- 
ness; when  the  final  story  of  the  anti-slavery 
struggle  in  this  country  shall  be  written,  among 
those  statesmen  who  wrought  for  liberty  and  pro- 
gress in  our  age  of  civic  and  military  valor,  and 
who  transmuted  their  own  God-given  energies  into 
current  coin  for  the  daily  use  of  humanity,  no  name 
will  shine  with  a  purer  lustre  on  the  historic  page 
than  that  of  John  P.  Hale. 

I  have  supposed,  and  do  suppose,  that  this  is  the 
true  glory  and  significance  of  his  career, — that  this 
is  the  emphasis  of  his  life  and  the  distinctive  mark 
he  made  upon  his  time, — that  in  which  the  affec- 
tions of  posterity  are  to  hold  and  garner  him. 
Without  this,  without  his  connection  with  the  great 
movement  for  emancipation  which  has  glorified  our 
age,  and  given  it  an  unapproachable  exaltation  in 


112  JOHN    P.    HALE. 

history,  he  would  be  entitled  to  public  honor  as  a 
good  case  lawyer,  an  eloquent  advocate,  a  useful 
senator,  a  faithful  son,  husband,  father,  and  a 
genial  and  fascinating  friend, — but  would  scarcely 
be  entitled  to  be  commemorated  by  a  statue  in  the 
public  grounds  of  his  state.  We  give  such  only 
to  great  services  to  humanity,  and  that  political 
freedom  to  which  all  nations,  though  by  indirect 
and  devious  routes,  are  tending:  and  such  we  give 
also,  only  when  time  has  tested,  and  set  its  seal 
upon  such  services.  Such  men  as  John  P.  Hale 
have  an  imperishable  hold  upon  the  moral  world, — 

"  Ever  their  phantoms  arise  before  us, 

Our  loftier  brothers,  but  one  in  blood ; 
At  bed  and  table  they  lord  it  o'er  us, 

With  looks  of  beauty,  and  words  of  good." 

He  bore  the  test  of  service  for  liberty  at  a  time 
when  such  service  was  the  supreme,  the  inexorable 
demand  of  the  hour.  Tried  in  a  time  which  tested 
men's  integrity,  men's  courage,  men's  souls, — 
tried  as  by  fire  and  not  found  wanting, — he 
fitly  stands  here  as  the  New  Hampshire  rep- 
resentative par  excellence  of  the  spirit  of  the 
new  era  under  whose  scorching  breath  slav- 
ery withered  up  like  a  scroll,  and  went  down 
to  its  dishonored  grave.  The  moral  courage 
and  intrepidity  of  this  man  in  the  face  of  that 
public  opinion  whereby  the  slave  power  dominated 
and  subjected  the  North  was  the  forerunner,  the 
flaming  evangel,  of  the  great  uprising  of  conscience 
in  the  North,  and  the  harbinger  of  that  martial 
courage  which,  twenty  years  later,  on  a  thousand 


JOHN   P.    HALE.  113 

fields  of  battle,  was  to  eclipse  the  highest  achieve- 
ments of  chivalry  and  cast  romance  into  the  shade. 
This  spirit,  this  dauntless  courage  and  persistency, 
this  contempt  of  martyrdom,  ranks  him  with  the 
apostles  of  liberty  in  other  ages  who  occupy  the 
highest  niches  in  the  Pantheon  of  freedom. 

Mr.  Depew  says  we  shall  never  have  a  West- 
minster Abbey.  Perhaps  we  never  shall,  but  Amer- 
ica will  write  on  her  heart  the  names  of  her  cham- 
pions of  liberty,  her  heroes  in  council,  and  on  the 
field  of  battle. 

You  shall  find  in  what  I  say  of  this  great  man  no 
political  hints  or  innuendoes.  What  Mr.  Hale  did 
was  for  men  of  all  parties.  His  work  contributed  to 
the  common  stock  of  freedom  which  all  parties 
enjoy  and  recognize.  I  am  not  so  unworthy  of  the 
duty  laid  on  me  this  day,  as  to  throw  into  the  scale 
of  our  current  politics  even  the  weight  of  an 
obscure  suggestion,  in  any  phrase  I  may  employ  to 
express  my  admiration  for  Mr.  Hale's  truth  to 
human  freedom;  and  it  is  the  highest  tribute  our 
generation  can  pay  to  his  genius  and  labors,  to 
admit  that  in  political  philosophy,  in  recognition  of 
universal  human  brotherhood,  all  of  us  begin  where 
he  left  off,  and  stand  on  the  vantage  ground  he 
gained  for  us. 

Mr.  Hale's  political  life  was  cast  in  a  grand  and 
fruitful  time.  He  lived  when  his  country  was  in 
full  health,  and  occupied  with  momentous  subjects. 
Others  there  have  been  whose  spirits,  like  his,  were 
in  tune  with  the  Divine  purpose;  whose  eyes,  like 
his,  from  the  mountain-top  of  vision  caught  the  ear- 
liest light  of  a  new  day,  but  who  have  only  seen  it 


114  JOHN    P.    HALE. 

from  Pisgah,  and  died  without  entering  the  Prom- 
ised Land.  But  he  was  permitted  to  see  the  com- 
plete triumph  of  his  principles,  and  the  political 
institutions  and  policy  of  his  country  recast  in  con- 
formity to  those  ideas  to  which  he  had  devoted  his 
life.  He  lived  to  see  the  definite  extinction  of  slav- 
ery and  all  its  claims,  the  release  of  every  function 
in  the  government  from  its  control.  He  heard  the 
roar  of  hostile  guns  settling  the  great  debate  in 
which  he  had  borne  so  early  and  so  prominent  a 
part,  with  voices  from  which  there  is  no  appeal. 
He  lived  to  hear,  also,  the  salvos  of  victory,  and  to 
see  the  land  covered  over  with  the  glory  of  freedom 
as  with  a  garment. 

One  other  security  safely  locks  up  his  fame. 
"  At  what  a  price,"  says  Landor,  "  would  many  a 
man  purchase  the  silence  of  futurity."  Surely  they 
who  need  that  silence  most  are  those  who  have 
once  had  their  faces  set  heavenward,  and  then  have 
faltered  and  fallen  out  by  the  way.  The  energy  and 
exaltation  of  soul,  the  uncalculating  enthusiasm  of 
humanity,  which  characterize  revolutions,  are  fol- 
lowed by  the  lowering  of  tone,  the  political  infidel- 
ity, the  eclipse  of  faith,  which  succeed  them  all  as 
the  night  the  day.  The  English  revolution  which 
dethroned  the  Stuarts  was  followed  by  the  Restor- 
ation; the  French  revolution,  by  Bonapartism  and 
a  new  regime  of  the  Bourbons;  Cromwell  and 
Hampden,  by  a  more  ignoble  Charles  and  the  suc- 
cessors of  Strafford  and  Laud;  Mirabeau,  by  Tal- 
leyrand ;  the  overthrow  of  prerogative  by  the  long- 
ing for  thrones  and  the  government  of  favorites. 

So  we,  also,  after  the  gigantic  struggle  to  over- 


JOHN   P.   HALE.  115 

throw  the  oppression  of  centuries,  live  in  a  time  of 
reaction.  Wealth  has  usurped  leadership;  plutoc- 
racy, and  not  ideas,  rules  the  hour;  and  the  dry 
bones  of  the  old  tyranny  crushed  thirty  years  ago 
begin  to  live.  The  appeal  to  be  true  to  the  ideas 
of  1860  falls  upon  deaf  ears.  We  would  rather 
sacrifice  to  the  Moloch  of  money;  we  rise  no 
higher  in  our  contentions  than  some  wrangle  about 
the  tariff,  or  the  puerility  and  rascality  of  determin- 
ing how  little  of  intrinsic  value  we  can  palm  off 
upon  the  world  for  a  dollar. 

It  was  Mr.  Hale's  high  fortune  to  escape  these 
dangers.  We  have  to  thank  God  that  there  were 
no  recantations  in  his  later  days ;  that  he  was 
never  overtaken  by  the  lassitude  of  the  moral  re- 
former, or  "  the  scepticism  that  treads  upon  the 
heels  of  revolutions ; "  nor  yielded  to  the  apostacy 
that  clouds  the  fame  and  the  memory  of  some 
who  had  done  valiant  service  for  the  right.  And 
when  the  great  struggle  which  had  opened  and 
closed  in  his  lifetime  was  finished, — when  the 
scene  upon  which  he  had  moved  was  closed,  how 
truly  could  he  say  that  he  had  not  only  fought  the 
good  fight,  but  had  kept  the  faith. 

It  is  altogether  fitting,  therefore,  that  the  statue 
of  such  a  man,  so  long  conspicuous  in  the  public 
service,  holding  the  highest  commission  the  state 
had  to  bestow  for  nearly  twenty  years,  and  ever 
upholding  her  honor  and  increasing  her  fame 
before  the  world,  should  be  erected  here,  to  stand, 
as  we  trust,  for  centuries  to  come,  in  the  grounds 
of  its  capitol.  We  thus  pay  homage  to  his 
memory  in  the  state  of  his  birth  and  his  abode; 


116  JOHN   P.   HALE. 

in  no  provincial  spirit,  however,  but  as  citizens  of  a 
larger  country,  in  whose  service  he  exerted  all  the 
powers  of  his  heart  and  brain. 

This  monumental  bronze,  its  pedestal  inscribed 
with  some  of  the  great  outlines  of  his  life  story, 
impressively  conveys  to  the  younger  generations, 
living  in  the  light  and  stirring  with  the  sublime 
thoughts  of  a  liberty  kindled  to  a  higher  glow  by 
his  torch,  the  assurance  that  from  his  lips  the 
accents  of  freedom  always  found  unfettered  utter- 
ance, that  we  have  numbered  his  labors  and  entered 
into  his  spirit,  and  that  more  than  they  can  pay  of 
gratitude  and  veneration  is  due  to  him  for  the 
achievements  and  lessons  of  his  high,  and  pure,  and 
strenuous  public  life. 

Aye  more,  we  proclaim  by  this  act  to-day  that 
he  deserves  to  stand  in  the  Valhalla  of  the  National 
Capitol  with  the  sages  and  worthies  whose  effigies 
adorn  its  rotunda,  because  he  was  the  hero  of  the 
noblest  of  our  revolutions, — that  peaceful  revolu- 
tion of  ideas  in  which  the  seed  was  sown  of  the  har- 
vest which  the  soldier's  sword  came  afterwards  to 
reap; — which  overturned  a  giant  wrong,  emancipa- 
ted the  master  no  less  than  the  slave,  and  gave  to 
America  that  place  in  the  political  order  to  which 
she  was  destined  by  Providence;  a  revolution 
unlike  those  that  have  re-organized  societies  else- 
where, in  that  in  ours  there  were  no  crimes  and  no 
excesses,  no  Anarchy,  no  Terror,  no  Military  Des- 
potism, no  profanations  and  no  blasphemies,  no 
massacres  and  no  proscriptions,  to  leave  their  in- 
effaceable stains  upon  the  face  of  human  progress. 

I  am  quite  aware  that  there  is  an  appointed  space 


JOHN  P.    HALE.  117 

prescribed  by  usage  and  good  taste,  by  the  cour- 
tesy of  the  press  and  the  patience  of  an  audience, 
within  which  what  is  said  here  should  be  circum- 
scribed. That  limit  was  long  since  passed,  and  I 
have  lingered  unduly  over  the  great  man  and  great 
actions  I  have  sought  to  commemorate.  With  all 
who  knew  him  in  life,  I  long  to-day 

"...  For  the  touch  of  a  vanished  hand, 
And  the  sound  of  a  voice  that  is  still." — 

and,  recalling  all  that  he  was  to  friends  and  coun- 
try, "  my  heart,  penetrated  with  the  remembrance 
of  the  man,  grows  liquid  as  I  speak,  and  I  could 
pour  it  out  like  water." 

And  then,  remembering  the  Protean  forms  in 
which  the  foes  of  liberty  are  ever  appearing,  and 
the  dangers  that  beset  the  republic  for  which  he 
lived  and  wrought,  the  vain  sorrow  and  the  selfish 
aspiration  are  alike  forgotten,  and  thinking  sadly 
of  some  crisis  of  Freedom  in  future  years,  and  he 
not  here  to  lead  on  her  legions  in  the  bewildering 
fight,  I  bid  hail  and  farewell  to  this  noble  son  of 
New  Hampshire,  one  of  the  chiefest  jewels  in  her 
crown  of  glory. 

"  Ah !  if  in  coming  times 
Some  giant  evil  arise, 
And  Honor  falter  and  pale, 
His  were  a  name  to  conjure  with ! 
God  send  his  like  again  !" 


ULYSSES  S.  GRANT. 


[Speech  at  a  public  meeting  of  citizens  at  City  Hall,  Dover,  July  26, 
1885.     General  Grant  died  July  23,  1885.] 

MR.  PRESIDENT  AND  FELLOW  CITIZENS:  The  intelli- 
gence of  the  death  of  our  great  chieftain  and  hero,  which 
came  to  us  two  days  ago,  was  not  altogether  painful.  The 
sympathies  of  every  patriot  and  friend  of  humanity  had 
gone  out  to  him  so  long  and  so  fully  while  he  lay  upon  his 
bed  of  anguish,  that  we  at  last  heard  of  his  release  from 
the  unrest  of  ''life's  fitful  fever"  with  a  sense  of  relief, 
almost  of  gladness.  After  months  of  weariness,  and  pain, 
and  wasting  disease  that  no  mortal  help  could  stay,  the 
most  illustrious  citizen  of  our  country,  and  one  of  the 
most  renowned  military  leaders  and  patriots  of  history,  has 
departed.  He  has  passed  the  threshold  of  another  life, 
and  the  pulses  of  his  mighty  heart  are  at  rest.  Men  now 
living  will  never  see  another  event  of  this  character — one 
which  will  excite  an  interest  so  wide-spread,  may  I  not 
say,  a  grief  so  profound  and  personal,  not  only  in  his  own 
land  among  men  of  all  sections,  classes,  and  parties,  but 
also  in  Europe  and  throughout  the  civilized  world,  wher- 
ever printed  speech  is  known.  It  would  be  presumptuous 
for  any  ordinary  person  to  approach  that  finished  character 
with  the  hope  of  adding  anything  of  moment  to  the  inter- 
est which  invests  it,  or  to  the  full  tide  of  sorrow  and 
eulogy  which  is  pouring  out  over  the  grave  of  our  national 
hero.  And  yet  it  is  in  every  sense  appropriate  that  we 
join  our  voices  here  to  the  universal  commemoration  of  his 
virtues,  his  matchless  achievements,  his  noble  character, 


ULYSSES   S.    GRANT.  119 

his  great  services  to  his  country,  and  the  patience  and  for- 
titude and  uncomplaining  resignation  which  marked  his 
last  days, — 

"  The  statesman — warrior,  moderate,  resolute, 
Whole  in  himself,  a  common  good; 
The  man  of  amplest  influence, 
Yet  clearest  of  ambitious  crime, 
Our  greatest,  yet  with  least  pretence, 
Great  in  council  and  great  in  war, 
Foremost  captain  of  his  time, 
Rich  in  saving  common  sense, 
And,  as  the  greatest  only  are, 
In  his  simplicity  sublime." 

I  think  it  is  impossible  to  study  the  career  of  General 
Grant  without  recognizing  in  him  the  most  remarkable 
man  of  modern  times.  He  was  a  characteristic  product  of 
our  institutions.  The  main  incidents  of  his  life  are  too 
familiar  to  need  recital.  Born  to  poverty  and  deprivation 
and  toil,  he  passed  thirty-nine  years  of  his  life  without 
arresting  anybody's  attention  by  striking  qualities  of  any 
kind.  He  exhibited  personal  bravery  in  the  Mexican  war, 
but  no  more  than  many  others  of  his  gallant  comrades  in 
arms.  He  tired  of  the  army,  and  tried  several  kinds  of 
business,  being  rather  unsuccessful  in  them  all.  At  length 
treason  struck  at  the  nation's  life,  and  this  was  his  oppor- 
tunity. He  sprang  with  alacrity  to  the  defence  of  the 
government  which  had  educated  him,  and  displayed  at 
once  the  metal  of  which  he  was  made.  Chance  seemed  to 
open  to  him  the  golden  gates  of  opportunity ;  and  he  it 
was  who  pierced  the  black  cloud  of  our  national  disas- 
ters with  the  first  electric  flashes  of  victory  at  Belmont, 
Fort  Henry,  and  Fort  Donelson.  The  people  recognized 
him,  hailed  him  with  acclamations,  rallied  around  him, 
gave  him  their  faith,  and  from  that  moment  his  course  was 
onward  without  faltering,  taking  no  step  backward,  to  the 
high  places  of  the  world.  He  fought  the  great  battles  of 
Shiloh,  Champion  Hill  and  Vicksburg,  Chattanooga  and 


120  ULYSSES   S.   GRANT. 

Missionary  Ridge,  and  trampled  out  the  rebellion  in  the 
West.  He  then  came  East,  and,  taking  command  of  all 
the  armies  of  the  Union,  displayed  all  his  great  qualities, 
his  mastery  of  strategy,  and  the  whole  art  of  war  on  a 
grand  scale.  He  fought  that  series  of  bloody  engagements 
in  the  Wilderness,  at  Spottsylvania,  Cold  Harbor,  and 
Petersburg,  and  finally,  with  an  invincible  tenacity  of  pur- 
pose, which  crushed  to  powder  every  obstacle  in  his  pathr 
he  grappled  the  rebellion  by  the  throat  and  strangled  it  to 
death  at  Appomattox  Court-House. 

It  is  impossible  for  many  of  you  younger  men,  who  love 
and  admire  General  Grant  in  your  own  way  and  from  your 
own  point  of  view,  to  enter  fully  into  the  feelings  which 
the  older  of  us  felt  for  him  in  the  crisis  of  his  country's 
destiny.  We  who  were  then  in  active  life,  who  in  the 
army  and  elsewhere  felt  the  stress  and  strain  and  agony 
of  that  struggle,  can  vividly  recall  the  faith  we  then  learned 
to  repose  in  General  Grant,  how  we  leaned  upon  his  mighty 
arm,  how  completely  we  trusted  our  fate  in  his  hands, 
and  how  nobly  he  justified  our  confidence.  You  young 
men  may  think  it  strange,  but  it  is  literally  true,  that  we 
who  lived  in  it  can  only  look  back  to  that  period  of  dark- 
ness and  gloom  and  bloody  sweat,  and  the  final  sunburst 
of  victory  which  Grant  brought  us,  through  tears  of  love 
and  gratitude.  And  we  cannot  now  doubt  that  he  who 
accomplished  the  task  that  had  baffled  so  many  others 
was  born  for  the  work  he  did — that  Providence  raised  him 
up,  as  it  has  other  heroes,  patriots,  prophets,  and  martyrs, 
for  a  special  service;  that,  indeed,  he  came  into  the  world 
divinely  appointed  for  his  work,  as  Abraham  Lincoln  was 
for  his  glorious  mission,  and  together  they  will  be  known 
in  history — the  Emancipator  and  the  Conqueror, — and  both 
of  them  deliverers  and  saviors  of  their  country. 

It  will  befit  the  occasions  of  more  formal  and  careful 
eulogy,  as  it  will  be  the  august  theme  of  story,  to  trace 
General  Grant's  military  operations  in  detail,  and  define 
with  critical  discrimination  the  peculiar  characteristics  of 


ULYSSES    S.   GRANT.  121 

his  military  genius,  and  his  place  among  great  soldiers. 
The  time  is  perhaps  not  quite  come  to  settle  that;  but, 
unless  every  test  of  contemporary  judgment  is  delusive, 
there  can  be  no  question  that  he  is  to  rank  hereafter  with 
the  Alexanders,  the  Haunibals,  the  Caesars,  the  Marlbor- 
oughs,  the  Fredericks,  the  Napoleons,  and  the  Wellingtons 
of  the  world.  Indeed,  a  critical  study  of  his  campaigns, 
in  connection  with  the  traits  of  his  mind  and  character, 
seems  to  leave  no  doubt  that,  in  any  arena  and  any  age,  he 
could  have  wrestled  on  even  terms  with  any  of  the  great 
captains  who  have  graven  their  names  on  the  tablets  of 
history. 

But,  aside  from  what  is  due  to  mere  military  genius, 
who  among  all  kindred  great  men  is  worthy  to  be  named 
along  with  him?  Who  of  them  was  so  modest,  who  so 
simple,  who  so  unselfish,  who  so  magnanimous,  who  so 
truthful  and  pure,  who  so  thoroughly  imbued  with  civic 
virtue,  moderation,  self  control,  and  devotion  to  duty  and 
to  liberty  as  he?  Not  one — not  one  among  all  the  renowned 
commanders  of  men.  And  so  he  stands  unique  among 
soldiers — a  figure  distinctly  and  clearly  cut  on  the  horizon 
of  every  man's  vision — a  type  by  himself — unlike  every- 
body else — with  an  individuality  so  distinct  that  no  other 
could  be  mistaken  for  him — and  so  answering,  as  I  think, 
one  of  the  supreme  tests  of  human  greatness.  How  readily 
and  how  freely  his  superiority  was  acknowledged  by  all  the 
accomplished  men  who  served  with  him ;  and,  yet,  what 
generous  words  he  spoke  at  all  times  of  Sherman,  and 
Sheridan,  and  Thomas,  and  Hancock,  and  many  another,  all 
of  whom  he  loved,  and  appreciated,  and  praised. 

As  a  president  of  the  United  States — a  chair  higher  than 
the  throne  of  any  king — to  which  the  people,  in  token  of 
their  gratitude  and  trust,  bore  him  again  and  again  on 
their  outstretched  arms,  he  was  ever  true  and  faithful  to 
their  interests ;  and  if,  by  reason  of  his  military  habits  of 
life,  his  inexperience,  and  his  implicit  belief  in  the  honesty 
of  others,  he  made  some  minor  mistakes,  he  was,  after  all, 


122  ULYSSES   S.    GRANT. 

one  of  the  greatest  presidents  on  the  illustrious  roll. 
Surely,  the  president  under  whose  direction  the  Geneva 
Arbitration  was  accomplished,  and  such  a  transcendent 
step  taken  towards  securing  the  peace  of  the  world,  who 
vetoed  the  inflation  bill  and  thus  kept  untarnished  the 
financial  honor  and  credit  of  his  country,  who  inaugurated 
the  experiment  and  laid  the  foundation  stone  of  the  reform 
of  the  civil  service,  and  under  whose  firm  hand  and  watch- 
ful eye  the  first  disputed  presidential  election  was  quietly, 
and  peacefully,  and  rightly  settled,  needs  no  apologetic 
defence,  and  will  never  be  forgotten  as  having  wreathed 
his  brow  with  a  civic  chaplet  as  unfading  as  his  laurels 
gained  in  war. 

If  I  do  not  entirely  misconceive  his  nature,  we  may  add 
that  this  great  man,  cast  in  a  heroic  mould,  gifted  with  great 
endowments,  and  born  for  great  destinies,  not  only  con- 
nected his  name  inseparably  with  the  martial  as  well  as 
with  all  the  great  legislative  achievements  and  glories  of 
the  heroic  age  of  his  country,  but  that  he  was  possessed  of 
the  rarest  of  private  virtues  and  most  winning  personal 
traits,  that  his  habits  were  mainly  pure  and  sweet,  that  his 
tastes  were  simple  and  healthy,  that  his  manners  were 
quiet  and  unassuming,  that  he  was  tender  and  affectionate 
to  his  family,  loyal  and  helpful  to  his  friends,  free  from 
vanity  and  egotism,  and  never  bitter,  but  generous  and 
charitable  and  forbearing  to  opponents;  that  partisanship 
had  not  narrowed  his  mind,  nor  quenched  in  him  the 
instincts  of  a  broad  statesmanship  and  a  broader  humanity. 

If  I  am  right  in  this  general,  but  most  hasty  and  imper- 
fect, estimate  of  his  personality,  I  think  we  can  readily 
appreciate  why  the  American  people  were  so  passionately 
attached  to  this  superb  specimen  of  manhood,  and  power, 
and  achievement,  why  they  so  loved  and  trusted  and  hon- 
ored him  to  the  end. 

Nor  did  these  qualities  fail  to  win  for  him  their  appro- 
priate recognition  from  the  rest  of  the  world.  Can  you 
ever  forget,  my  friends,  his  wonderful  tour  round  the 


ULYSSES    S.    GRANT.  123 

world,  the  most  dramatic  and  impressive  spectacle,  it  seems 
to  me,  that  ever  crowned  the  personal  career  of  any  man  in 
ancient  or  modern  times?  Wherever  he  went  the  kings 
and  potentates  of  the  earth  uncovered  before  him,  and 
princes,  statesmen,  and  philosophers  vied  with  each  other 
in  doing  homage  to  his  genius,  his  character,  and  his 
achievements.  His  progress  around  the  earth  was  literally 
a  triumphal  march.  The  cities  of  the  Orient  and  Occident 
alike  threw  open  their  gates  at  his  coming,  and  Europe, 
Asia,  Africa,  and  the  islands  of  the  sea  crowded  the  streets 
and  roads  of  the  old  world  to  meet  and  greet  him,  and  lay 
their  gifts  of  admiration  at  his  feet.  And  yet  he  never  for- 
got for  one  moment  to  ascribe  all  the  homage  and  honor 
lavished  upon  him  to  the  great  country,  the  great  cause, 
and  the  great  people  he  represented.  He  moved  with  the 
same  imperturbable  dignity  and  unaffected  simplicity  in 
the  palaces  of  kings  and  the  glittering  courts  of  emperors — 
he  never  said  an  unfitting  word  or  did  an  unfitting  action— 
and  came  back  as  simple  and  unspoiled  by  flattery,  as 
when  we  sent  him  forth  to  show  the  old  world  what  the 
new  could  do  in  the  way  of  producing  a  man. 

What  mutations  in  human  fortune  does  his  career  illus- 
trate !  From  obscurity  lifted  not  unnaturally  to  the 
highest  eminence  on  earth — that  dizzy  height,  that  goal 
which  so  many  of  our  ambitious  men  have  longed  for  and 
sought  in  vain — at  last,  when,  according  to  natural  laws, 
there  should  have  been  twenty  years  more  of  peaceful  life 
and  repose  vouchsafed  to  him,  after  a  heroic  battle,  borne 
without  one  articulate  murmur  of  complaint,  he  yields  to 
the  Angel  of  Death,  whose* dread  command  not  even  his 
unbending  will  could  turn  aside. 

"O  iron  nerve,  to  true  occasion  true, 
O  fall'n  at  length  that  tower  of  strength, 
Which  stood  four  square  to  all  the  winds  that  blew  !  " 

As  we  stand  beside  his  open  grave,  how  vividly  we  real- 
ize the  weakness  of  our  poor  human  nature,  the  transitori- 


124  ULYSSES   S.    GRANT. 

ness  of  earthly  glory,  the  worthlessness  of  most  of  the 
prizes  of  earthly  fame  and  ambition,  the  majesty  of  charac- 
ter, the  divine  beauty  and  the  sure  recompense  of  great 
deeds  done  in  a  modest  and  unselfish  spirit. 

All  these  lessons  our  people  deeply  realize.  Nor  can 
foreign  nations  fail  to  draw  another  lesson  from  the  event ; 
that,  cold  and  calculating  and  factious  as  we  are  supposed 
to  be,  we  are  still  capable  of  a  noble  self-abnegation ;  we 
forget  our  differences ;  we  can  obliterate  party  and  sec- 
tional lines,  and  stand  in  loving  embrace  and  pour  out  our 
tears  together  over  the  bier  of  virtue  and  heroism,  all 
hearts  melted  into  sympathy  and  regret  that 

"  —  renown  and  grace  are  no  more." 

It  is  to  me  one  of  the  most  touching  and  significant 
things  in  the  life  of  General  Grant,  that  the  people  whom 
he  conquered  came  to  recognize  in  him  their  friend  and 
saviour,  as  he  was  their  most  magnanimous  foe.  He  broke 
down  their  military  power,  and  relentlessly  reduced  them 
to  submission  and  obedience  to  the  law;  but,  when  all  was 
over,  he  was  so  considerate  and  helpful  that  he  conquered 
their  hearts,  and  no  sincerer  mourners  will  be  found  at  his 
grave  than  the  great  body  of  Confederate  soldiers. 

It  is  a  mournful  pleasure  for  us  to  think  over  all  the  gra- 
ciousness  of  the  gift  to  us  of  this  great  man  ;  but,  alas! 
nothing  is  left  for  us  to-day  but  to 

"  Render  thanks  to  the  Giver, 
And  render  him  to  the  mould." 


"  For  the  stars  on  our  banner  grown  suddenly  dim 
Let  us  weep  in  our  darkness,  but  weep  not  for  him  ; 
Xot  for  him,  who.  departing,  left  millions  in  tears ; 
Not  for  him,  who  has  died  full  of  honors  and  years  ; 
Not  for  him,  who  ascended  Fame's  ladder  so  high — 
From  the  round  at  the  top  he  has  stepped  to  the  sky !  " 


ULYSSES   S.   GKANT.  125 

Not  for  him — but  for  his  bereaved  country,  to  whom  his 
loss  at  any  time  would  be  great  and  sore — for  his  afflicted 
family  and  the  whole  desolated  hearthstone,  bereft  of  his 
sweet  affection  and  ever-tender  care.  These  the  American 
people  will  soothe  and  cherish  as  their  own  ;  while  Death 
sanctifies  and  canonizes  his  great  character,  locks  up  his 
fame  securely  against  all  further  trials  of  strength  and 
weakness  alike,  and  transfers  him  to  our  national  pantheon 
of  heroes  and  patriots,  where  he  will  ever  be  associated 
with  Washington  and  Lincoln, — all  of  them  ours  alone,  and 
our  precious  possessions  forever.  His  immortal  spirit  has 
joined  theirs,  and 

"  Ne'er  to  those  dwellings,  where  the  mighty  rest 
Since  their  foundations,  came  a  nobler  guest !  " 

Soon  the  august  procession  will  lead  forth  the  pageant 
of  his  obsequies ;  the  imperial  States  of  the  Republic  will 
bear  up  his  funeral  pall ;  and  of  the  most  sad  in  the  pro- 
cession of  the  bereaved  will  be  the  distinguished  soldiers  of 
the  Rebellion,  his  own  illustrious  companions-in-arms,  and 
the  scarred  and  sunburnt  veterans  of  that  Army  of  the 
Union  which  his  genius  had  fashioned  into  such  a  thunder- 
bolt of  war. 

"  Let  the  bell  be  tolled  ; 
And  a  reverent  people  behold 
The  towering  car,  the  sable  steed." 

On  every  side  are  utterances  of  the  popular  heart.  The 
pealing  of  cannon,  the  throbbing  of  bells,  the  flags  at  h#lf- 
mast,  the  closed  doors  of  business,  the  solemn  hush  of  the 
streets,  and  the  emblems  of  grief  and  sorrow  that  enshroud 
the  whole  land,  tell  their  own  sad  story  of  bereavement 
and  loss. 

But  amid  all  this  let  us  not  forget  that  there  are  precious 
consolations  in  the  last  years  of  our  great  leader.  The  vic- 
torious chieftain  of  his  country's  armies,  and  the  center  of 


126  ULYSSES   S.    GRANT. 

his  country's  hopes,  and  desires,  and  prayers, — honored  and 
received  in  other  lands  as  no  other  man  ever  was  since  the 
beginning  of  time, — the  full  sheaves  of  earthly  glory,  fruits 
of  his  genius  and  patriotism,  safely  gathered  in, — after 
drawing  near  to  the  gates  of  death  he  was  drawn  back  from 
the  open  door  of  immortality,  and  graciously  spared  to 
learn  before  tasting  of  death,  how  much  he  was  beloved  by 
his  countrymen,  and  especially  by  the  Southern  people 
whom  he  vanquished,  but  to  whom  he  was  ever  so  lenient, 
and  kind,  and  true.  And  we  know  by  his  own  words, 
which  appear  this  morning,  among  the  last  he  ever  wrote, 
how  the  demonstrations  of  respect  which  came  to  him  from 
the  South  touched  his  heart,  and  how  his  mighty  spirit 
rejoiced  in  these  evidences  of  a  reunited  country. 

But  the  respite  could  be  but  brief,  and  he  yielded  at  last 
to  the  great  Conqueror  of  all,  and  passed  to  his  rest. 

"  All  is  over  and  done, 
Give  thanks  to  the  giver,  America, 
For  thy  son." 

Even  while  his  precious  dust  is  still  with  us,  the  light- 
nings of  heaven  are  fitly  employed  in  canning  around  the 
world  the  electric  currents  of  a  universal  sympathy  and 
sense  of  bereavement.  In  ages  to  come  it  will  be  the  tire- 
less theme  of  history  and  of  song  to  celebrate  his  virtues, 
his  victories,  and  his  glory.  His  mortal  part  is  to  be  laid 
in  the  centre  of  the  great  city  he  loved  so  well,  and  made 
his  home,  where  the  sun  strikes  from  the  west  the  high- 
lands of  the  Hudson,  where 

"  The  sound  of  those  he  wrought  for, 
And  the  feet  of  those  he  fought  for, 
Will  echo  round  his  bones  forevermore," 

and  pilgrims  from  every  land  will  fare  to  that  illustrious 
tomb,  as  to  a  consecrated  shrine  of  patriotism  and 
loyalty. 


ULYSSES   S.    GRANT.  127 

"  Peace  !  his  triumph  will  be  sung, 
By  some  yet  unmoulded  tongue, 
Far  on  in  summers  that  we  shall  not  see ; 
Peace,  it  is  a  day  of  pain 
For  one  about  whose  patriarchal  knee 
Late  the  little  children  clung  ; 
O  Peace,  it  is  a  day  of  pain 
For  one  upon  whose  hand,  and  heart,  and  brain, 
Once  the  weight  and  fate  of  nations  hung. 
Ours  the  pain,  be  his  the  gain  ! 
More  than  is  of  man's  degree 
Must  be  with  us  watching  here 
At  this,  our  great  solemnity. 
Whom  we  see  not  we  revere, 
We  revere,  and  we  refrain 
From  talk  of  battles  loud  and  vain, 
And  brawling  memories  all  too  free 
For  such  a  wise  humility 
As  befits  a  solemn  fane  ; 
We  revere,  and  while  we  hear 
The  tides  of  Music's  golden  sea 
Setting  toward  eternity, 
Uplifted  high  in  heart  and  hope  are  we, 
Until  we  doubt  not  that  for  one  so  true 
There  must  be  other  nobler  work  to  do, 
And  Victor  he  must  ever  be. 

*  *  *  * 

Ashes  to  ashes,  dust  to  dust ; 

He  is  gone  who  seemed  so  great ; — 

Gone,  but  nothing  can  bereave  him 

Of  the  force  he  made  his  own 

Being  here,  and  we  believe  him 

Something  far  advanced  in  state, 

And  that  he  wears  a  truer  crown 

Than  any  wreath  that  man  can  weave  him. 

But  speak  no  more  of  his  renown, 

Lay  your  earthly  fancies  down, 

And  in  the  vast  cathedral  leave  him, 

God  accept  him,  Christ  receive  him  !  " 


At  a  Banquet  given  by  the  Nashua  Lincoln  Club  in  honor 
of  Gen.  Grant's  birthday,  April  27,  1888,  Col.  Hall  after 
making  substantially  the  foregoing  address  spoke  as  follows : 


128  ULYSSES   S.    GRANT. 

"We  are  now  far  enough  removed  from  Gen.  Grant's 
death  to  test  the  enduring  and  wearing  quality  of  his  repu- 
tation. Day  by  day  his  renown  becomes  broader  and 
brighter.  Every  hour  adds  a  stone  to  the  majestic  cairn 
which  the  ages  are  already  building  to  his  memory. 

They  talk  of  the  neglect  of  New  York  to  erect  a  monu- 
ment adequate  to  his  fame.  It  matters  little, — 

"  Nothing  can  cover  his  high  fame,  but  Heaven  ; 
No  pyramids  set  oft'  his  memories, 
But  the  eternal  substance  of  his  greatness." 

In  the  "  Personal  Memoirs  "  into  which  for  the  love  of 
his  domestic  hearth,  he  wrought  his  heart-strings  in  his  last 
days — a  book  so  characteristic,  so  direct  and  transparent, 
so  grand  in  its  simplicity,  so  pellucid  in  its  st}rle  that  you 
look  through  its  crystal  depths  down  to  the  very  bottom  of 
his  mind  and  heart — the  only  great  work  I  know  of  written 
solely  to  tell  the  story  of  a  great  man's  life  in  the  fewest 
and  plainest  and  tersest  words,  without  a  thought  of  liter- 
ary fame — in  that  book,  if  no  other  deed  of  his  remained, 
he  has  embalmed  his  name,  and  he  might  have  written  at 
the  end 

"  Exegi  monumentum  aere  perennius." 

But  in  a  higher  sense,  his  true  monument  is  already 
builded,  though  its  proportions  will  become  larger  and 
more  majestic  as  the  centuries  tide  on.  That  monu- 
ment is  the  Union  which  he  preserved  by  his  indomitable 
Avill,  his  masterful  brain,  his  loyal  and  liberty-loving  soul, 
and  the  terrible  energies  of  his  puissant  right  arm. 

Mr.  President,  there  is  a  manifest  propriety  in  the  cele- 
bration of  the  birth  of  Ulysses  S.  Grant  by  a  club  bearing 
the  name  of  Abraham  Lincoln.  These  two  illustrious 
names,  names  which,  as  Burke  said  of  Lord  Chatham, 
44  keep  the  name  of  this  country  respectable  in  every  other 
on  the  globe,"  are  indissolubly  united.  They  are  blended 


ULYSSES    S.   GKANT.  129 

in  a  beautiful  harmony  like  the  prismatic  rays,  and  so  in- 
separable in  our  memory  that  we  can  never  think  of  the 
one  without  the  other.  Together  in  life,  we  may  well  be- 
lieve that  in  death  they  are  not  divided — and  ours  is  the 
privilege  and  happiness  to  hold  them  in  equal  allegiance, 
and  love,  and  reverence.  And  how  fitting  it  is  that  an 
association  like  this  of  those  who  think  alike  concerning 
the  republic,  should  give  a  day  of  commemoration  to  each ; 
that  we  annually  unlock  our  treasure-house  of  memory, 
and  fondly  count  over  again  all  the  tokens  and  remem- 
brances, little  and  great,  which  we  have  garnered  up,  of 
these  two  greatest  men  of  their  age. 

"  On  God  and  godlike  men  we  build  our  trust,"  and  we 
shall  be  degenerate  indeed  when  we  forget  to  honor  these 
precious  names,  and  to  think  of  the  graciousness  of  the  gift 
to  us  of  the  two  characters  who  stand  for  so  much  of  the 
glory  and  luster  which  gilded  the  close  of  the  first  century 
of  our  history. 

Nor  can  we  forget  that  this  is  a  political  club,  and  that 
Gen.  Grant  was  so  thoroughly  a  Republican  that  every 
honor  we  pay  him  here  has  a  political  meaning  and  signifi- 
cance. We  are  the  heirs  of  his  political  principles,  and  in 
the  great  national  contest  just  at  hand,  we  shall  inscribe 
them  once  more  on  our  banners,  and  under  their  guidance 
we  will  sound  the  charge  and  march  to  victory.  It  is  our 
duty  to  rescue  the  government  from  the  clutch  of  a  party 
which  is  every  day  making  more  manifest  its  profligacy,  its 
want  of  principle,  its  untrustworthiness  and  incapacity  to 
govern — and  to  return  it  to  the  hands  of  the  men  who  lost 
it  by  frauds  and  outrages  upon  the  suffrage  which,  unless 
arrested,  will,  at  no  distant  day,  wreck  popular  government 
in  this  land.  Gen.  Grant  stood  for  a  renewed  and  harmo- 
nious nationality,  and  so  do  we.  He  stood  for  a  sound  cur- 
rency and  honest  debt-paying,  and  so  do  we.  He  stood  for 
faithful  obedience  to  the  Constitution  and  the  laws,  and  so  do 
we.  He  stood  for  the  protection  of  our  coast-frontier,  for  the 
rehabilitation  of  American  commerce,  and  the  American 

9 


130  ULYSSES    S.   GRANT. 

navy,  and  so  do  we.  He  stood  for  a  vigorous  assertion  of 
American  rights  abroad  and  for  the  honor  of  the  flag  over 
every  inch  of  land  and  sea  under  the  whole  heaven,  and  so 
do  we.  He  stood  for  a  true  reform  of  the  civil  service,  and 
its  elevation  above  mere  spoils,  partisanship,  and  hypocrisy, 
such  as  is  now  smirching  its  honor  and  bedraggling  it  with 
mire ;  and  so  do  we.  He  stood  for  a  loyal  and  grateful 
recognition  of  the  services  and  sacrifices  of  the  men  who 
saved  the  American  Union  on  the  field  of  battle  and  the 
decks  of  our  men  of  war;  and  so  do  we.  He  stood  for  the 
protection  of  American  industry,  for  the  preservation  of  the 
home  market  to  the  American  producer,  and  for  the  main- 
tenance of  high  wages  to  the  American  laborer;  and  so  do 
we.  Gen.  Grant  stood  for  the  emancipated  slave,  for  the 
rights  of  humanity  and  American  citizenship  everywhere, 
for  a  free  and  untrammeled  and  unterrorized  ballot,  and  an 
honest  count;  and  so  do  we;  and  there,  God  helping  us, 
we  will  stand  forever.  These  principles  will  be  our  watch- 
word in  the  coming  struggle,  and  whosoever  may  be  chosen 
for  the  moment  as  our  standard-bearer,  if  we  are  faithful 
to  these  principles  we  may  look  up  with  serene  confidence 
for  the  benediction  of  those  strong  and  pure  and  kindly 
faces  of  Lincoln  and  Grant,  that  look  down  upon  us  to-night 
as  the  spiritual  guests  of  these  festivities. 

But  our  final  and  highest  thought  of  General  Grant 
must  always  lift  us  sheer  and  clear  above  the  denser  atmos- 
phere of  partisanship  into  the  pure,  upper  air  of  reverence 
for  the  plain,  great  man,  who  with  the  simple  feeling  of 
obedience  to  duty  did  his  great  work  in  life,  and  illustrated, 
as  scarcely  any  other  man  in  history  has  done,  the  sure  con- 
nection of  duty  and  glory. 

"  Not  once  or  twice  in  our  fair  story, 
The  path  of  duty  was  the  way  to  glory  : 
He  that  ever  following  her  commands, 
On  with  toil  of  heart,  and  knees,  and  hands, 
Thro'  the  long  gorge  to  the  far  light  has  won 
His  path  upward,  and  prevailed, 


ULYSSES   S.   GRANT.  131 

Shall  find  the  toppling  crags  of  duty  scaled 

Are  close  upon  the  shining  table-lands 

To  which  our  God  himself  is  moon  and  sun. 

Such  was  he :  his  work  is  done, 

But  while  the  races  of  mankind  endure, 

Let  his  great  example  stand 

Colossal,  seen  of  every  land, 

And  keep  the  soldier  firm,  the  statesman  pure ; 

Till  in  all  lands,  and  thro'  all  human  story, 

The  path  of  duty  be  the  way  to  glory. 

And  let  the  land  whose  hearths  he  saved  from  shame, 

For  many  and  many  an  age  proclaim, 

At  civic  revel,  and  pomp  and  game, 

And  when  the  long-illumined  cities  flame, 

Their  ever  loyal  iron  leader's  fame, 

With  honor,  honor,  honor,  honor  to  him, 

Eternal  honor  to  his  name." 


JOHN  B.  GOUGH. 


[DELIVERED  AT  THE  CITY  HALL,  DOVER,  N.  H.,  APRIL  11,  1886.} 

LADIES  AND  GENTLEMEN  : — John  B.  Gough  died  seven 
weeks  ago,  and  I  have  thought  it  somewhat  remarkable,  as 
perhaps  you  have  also,  that  no  more  has  been  already  done 
and  said  to  mark  and  point  the  moral  of  so  important  and 
noteworthy  an  event.  It  would  be  a  strange  neglect,  in- 
deed, if  a  society  like  the  Woman's  Christian  Temperance 
Union,  and  all  kindred  societies,  should  not  gather  about 
the  bier  of  this  extraordinary  man,  and  call  the  world  to 
witness,  by  fitting  words  of  commemoration,  that  the  great- 
est champion  of  their  cause  lies  dead,  "dead  on  the  field  of 
honor." 

I  gladly  join  in  the  honors  of  this  memorial  service, 
which  ought  to  be  coextensive  with  the  race  which  he  did 
so  much  to  help  and  to  save.  Others  have  spoken  and  will 
speak  of  his  Christian  virtues,  and  other  aspects  of  his  strik- 
ing career,  which  was  fully  closed  on  the  18th  of  February 
last.  In  the  few  minutes  allotted  to  me  here,  it  is  only  my 
duty  to  briefly  touch  upon  the  incidents  of  his  remarkable 
life,  and  sketch  the  outlines  of  his  magnificent  work  in  the 
cause  of  temperance. 

JOHN  B.  GOUGH  was  an  Englishman  by  birth,  and  born 
at  Sandgate,  England,  on  the  22d  of  August,  1817,  of  hum- 
ble parentage.  His  father  was  a  soldier  in  the  British 
army,  and  his  mother  was  for  twenty  years  the  schoolmis- 
tress in  the  little  village  where  they  resided.  Though  very 
poor,  he  must  have  had  some  educational  advantages,  for 
at  the  age  of  eight  years  he  was  a  remarkably  good  reader. 
When  he  was  but  twelve  vears  old  his  father  decided  to 


JOHN   B.   GOUGH.  133 

send  him  to  America  with  a  family  of  immigrants,  that 
he  might  here  learn  a  trade  and  establish  himself  in 
life.  The  family  settled  on  a  farm  in  Oneida  County,  N. 
Y.,  and  he  remained  with  them  two  years.  In  1831,  when 
he  was  fourteen  years  of  age,  he  went  to  the  city  of  New 
York,  to  learn  a  trade.  Meantime  he  had  become  a  mem- 
ber of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  and  soon  after 
reaching  New  York  he  found  work  in  the  Methodist  Epis- 
copal Book  Concern,  as  an  errand  boy  and  apprentice  to 
the  trade  of  book-binding.  He  became  a  skilful  workman, 
and,  in  1833,  sent  for  his  mother  and  sister  to  join  him. 
They  came  over,  but  in  1834  his  mother  died  of  apoplexy, 
and  soon  after — at  17  years  of  age — being  thrown  upon  his 
own  resources,  young  Gough  commenced  that  career  of 
dissipation  which  came  so  near  wrecking  him  wholly,  and 
which  in  his  lectures  on  temperance  he  has  described  with 
such  terrible  vividness.  His  power  as  a  mimic  and  story- 
teller made  him  a  favorite  with  young  men  about  town  who 
were  prone  to  dissipation,  and  he  gave  way  to  the  tempta- 
tions which  beset  the  young  in  such  a  city.  He  became  an 
inebriate,  and  sank  so  low  that  even  the  evil  companions 
who  had  enticed  him  into  such  courses  forsook  him.  Des- 
titution and  drink  were  then  his  lot  for  several  years. 
From  1834  to  1842 — while  he  was  17  to  25  years  old — he 
went  from  place  to  place,  sometimes  appearing  on  the  stage 
as  a  comic  singer  or  low  comedian,  sometimes  working  at 
his  trade,  but  ever  sinking  lower  and  lower  into  the  depths 
of  intemperance.  In  1838  he  went  on  a  fishing  cruise  from 
Newburyport,  and  on  his  return  there  he  married,  and  did 
well  for  a  time,  but  relapsed :  his  passion  for  drink  pre- 
vailed, and  he  became  a  confirmed  drunkard.  At  about 
this  time  he  came  near  being  burned  to  death  in  his  own 
bed,  which,  in  his  drunken  carelessness,  he  had  set  on  fire: 
He  battled  bravely  with  his  appetite,  but  it  was  too  strong 
for  him.  At  length  delirium  tremens  came,  his  wife  died, 
and  at  last  he  seemed  to  be  without  a  friend  in  the  world. 
Driven  to  desperation,  he  drank  more  than  ever,  and  he 


134  JOHN   B.    GOUGH. 

frequented  the  lowest  groggeries,  telling  funny  stories  and 
singing  comic  songs  to  amuse  the  loafers,  who  paid  him  for 
his  buffoonery  in  brandy.  Mr.  Gough  made  this  account 
of  his  life — the  horrible  years  between  the  ages  of  17  and 
25 — the  most  terrible  picture  ever  painted  in  words  and 
gestures  before  an  audience. 

But  a  merciful  Providence  had  reserved  him  for  another 
destiny,  and  he  was  rescued  by  the  Washingtonian  move- 
ment. One  Sunday  evening,  in  October,  1842,  while  walking 
in  the  streets  of  Worcester,  Mass.,  miserable  and  hopeless,  he 
felt  a  tap  on  the  shoulder.  He  turned,  and  met  the  kindly 
face  of  Mr.  Joel  Stratton,  an  utter  stranger  to  him,  who 
asked  him  to  go  to  a  temperance  meeting,  the  next  night,, 
and  sign  the  pledge.  He  promised  to  go,  and  went,  and 
signed  ;  and  this  was  the  turning-point  in  his  life.  Another 
attack  of  delirium  tremem  followed,  nearly  costing  him  his 
life.  But  he  recovered  and  kept  the  pledge  five  months,, 
when  he  fell,  but  soon  recovered  again,  and  from  that  time 
forward  was  a  thorough  temperance  man. 

He  immediately  commenced  that  career  as  a  temperance 
lecturer  which  continued  till  the  day  of  his  death,  a  period 
of  nearly  44  years.  I  have  an  impression  that  Dover  was 
one  of  the  early  places  he  visited — but,  at  any  rate,  he  spoke 
here  many  times  in  the  course  of  his  life — and  many  who 
hear  me  have  listened  to  him  again  and  again.  He  was 
everywhere  in  demand  as  a  temperance  lecturer,  and  in  the 
first  year  of  his  labors  he  travelled  7,000  miles,  delivered 
400  addresses,  and  obtained  1,500  signatures  to  the  pledge. 
In  the  two  years  succeeding  his  reformation,  he  travelled 
12,000  miles,  delivered  600  lectures,  and  obtained  32,000 
signatures  to  the  pledge.  Thus  he  traversed  this  country 
for  ten  years,  addressing  vast  audiences  everywhere,  and 
stirring  them  as  no  human  speech  had  ever  stirred  them 
before. 

The  fame  of  his  extraordinary  talents  reached  England 
and  he  visited  that  country,  first  in  1853,  and  again  in  1878, 
where  he  was  warmly  welcomed  and  heard  with  eagerness 


JOHN  B.    GOTJGH.  ]  35 

by  all  classes  of  society,  and  thousands  of  drunkards  were 
reclaimed  by  his  efforts.  He  delivered  100  orations  in  Lon- 
don, and  spoke  to  multitudes  in  all  the  great  towns  of  the 
United  Kingdom,  his  eloquence  charming  all  classes,  and 
his  meetings  were  attended  by  the  e*lite  of  English  society, 
men  of  rank  esteeming  it  an  honor  to  preside  at  them.  He 
has  probably  been  heard  by  more  human  beings  than  any 
other  speaker  of  his  time,  having  travelled  a  half  million  of 
miles  and  delivered  8,000  lectures.  He  very  early  began  to 
speal^  on  other  subjects,  but  was  never,  I  think,  so  great 
elsewhere,  and,  indeed,  it  may  be  said,  he  never  spoke  with- 
out putting  in  an  effective  word  for  the  great  cause  to 
which  he  devoted  his  life.  On  the  lyceum  platform  he  de- 
livered many  lectures  on  literary,  social,  and  religious  top- 
ics, and  won  and  held  preeminent  rank  among  the  popular 
orators  of  his  time.  His  income  from  his  work  at  length 
became  very  large.  He  married  the  wife  who  now  survives 
him  in  Worcester,  in  1843,  and  made  for  himself  a  beauti- 
ful home  in  Boylston,  about  four  miles  from  Worcester, 
where  he  had  240  acres  of  land  beautifully  laid  out,  and  all 
in  thorough  cultivation,  and  adorned  with  taste  and  cul- 
ture. Here  he  spent  his  summers,  while  he  lectured  in 
winter.  He  was  generous  in  his  benefactions,  and  devoted 
much  of  his  wealth  to  good  works  of  every  kind.  His  char- 
ities were  large  and  unostentatious,  and  few  men  have  done 
more  good  in  their  day  in  the  ordinary  ways  of  daily  life 
than  John  B.  Gough. 

I  have  neither  time  nor  ability  to  fully  describe  Mr. 
Gough,  and  analyze  his  character  as  an  orator.  To  speak 
with  literal  truth,  he  was  an  oratorical  wonder.  Without 
an  imposing  presence,  without  any  pretensions  to  learn- 
ing or  great  logical  powers,  he  was  a  consummate  master 
of  human  speech — an  actor — an  impersonator — and  pre- 
sented his  argument  with  such  ready  flow  of  language, 
with  such  dramatic  force,  such  inimitable  mimicry,  with 
such  pathos  and  humor,  and  all  suffused  with  such 
vivid  coloring  and  penetrated  with  such  moral  ear- 


136  JOHN   B.    GOUGH. 

nestness,  that  all  classes  were  entranced,  and  hung 
upon  his  accents  with  delight.  Did  anybody  ever  hear 
another  such  story-teller  as  he  was?  His  wide  expe- 
rience had  furnished  him  with  a  great  fund  of  anecdote, 
which  he  employed  with  never-failing  effect,  and  illustra- 
ted with  impersonations  of  character  of  the  most  lifelike 
accuracy.  He  could  be  anything  that  he  chose  to  be — as- 
suming at  will  the  rollicking  Irishman,  the  phlegmatic 
Dutchman,  the  frivolous  Frenchman,  the  dialect  Yankee, 
the  austere  Scotch  deacon,  the  coxcomb,  the  plantation  ne- 
gro, the  brutal  husband,  the  heart-broken  wife,  the  toper  in 
every  stage.  Often  grotesque,  he  was  never  coarse,  or  im- 
pure, or  irreverent,  in  speech  or  action.  No  word  ever  fell 
from  his  lips  that  could  offend  the  most  fastidious  taste. 
But  there  was  character  in  every  lineament  of  his  face, 
every  movement  of  his  hand,  every  tone  of  his  voice. 
Some  one  has  aptly  said  that  there  was  more  expression  in 
Gough's  coat-tails  than  in  most  men's  features.  How  often 
vast  audiences  have  been  excited  to  uncontrollable  bursts 
of  laughter  by  his  ludicrous  presentations,  and  at  the  next 
moment  melted  to  tears  by  his  pathetic  pictures  of  the 
horrors  of  the  drunkard's  imagination,  and  the  sufferings  of 
the  drunkard  and  his  family.  It  seems  to  me  no  man  ever 
amused,  and,  at  the  same  time  rescued  and  uplifted,  so 
many  people.  He  was  a  speaker  of  most  peculiar  type 
— and  Nature  must  have  broken  the  die  in  moulding  him. 
I  heard  him  first  in  the  old  Broadway  Tabernacle,  in 
New  York,  whose  walls,  now  crumbled  to  dust  these  many 
years,  resounded  to  the  highest  eloquence  that  has  been 
heard  in  our  land.  It  was  the  time  of  the  great  awakening 
in  this  country.  "Uncle  Tom's  Cabin  "  had  let  the  light 
in  upon  the  terrible  institution  of  slavery,  and  men  and 
women  were  beginning  to  see  as  never  before  the  horrors 
of  the  prison  house  of  men  and  women  and  children  at 
their  very  doors.  It  was  my  fortune  to  be  a  young  man  in 
those  days,  and  it  seems  to  me  that  it  was  a  rare  good  for- 
tune. I  think  a  young  man  ought  to  be  thankful  when  his 


JOHN  B.   GOTJGH. 

lot  is  cast  in  a  time  pulsating  with  great  events — when 
thought  is  stirring — when  people  are  opening  their  minds 
to  new  truths — when  old  abuses  are  passing  away — when 
momentous  changes  are  in  the  air,  and  when  great  orators, 
born  always  of  such  ferments,  come  forward  and  pour  out 
their  inspired  accents  and  impassioned  thoughts  upon  the 
ears  of  the  world.  That  was  emphatically  a  time  of  that 
kind — and  whatever  I  have  had  of  high  enthusiasm,  of  as- 
pirations for  a  higher  good  for  myself,  for  my  country,  and 
mankind,  I  date  back  for  their  kindling  and  growth  to  that 
time.  I  heard  then,  in  New  York,  nearly  all  the  great 
public  speakers  of  that  day,  as  they  hurled  their  burning 
and  scorching  denunciations  upon  the  Moloch  of  human 
slavery.  I  heard,  in  one  day,  in  1855,  at  the  May  anniver- 
sary of  the  American  Anti-Slavery  Society,  in  the  old  Met- 
ropolitan Theatre,  Wendell  Phillips,  William  Lloyd  Garri- 
son, Charles  Sumner,  Theodore  Parker,  and  Henry  Ward 
Beecher.  These  were  the  princes  of  the  blood  of  the  Amer- 
ican platform — and  all  of  them,  just  then,  at  their  very 
best.  At  about  the  same  time  I  first  heard  John  B.  Gough, 
on  a  theme  not  less  grand,  and  not  less  inspiring  than  Anti- 
Slavery,  the  theme  of  Temperance ;  and  never  did  I  hear 
such  eloquence,  before  or  since.  Inferior  to  all  the  great 
orators  I  have  just  mentioned,  in  some  respects,  yet  in  dra- 
matic power,  the  lurid  light  which  he  threw  upon  his  can- 
vas as  he  painted  the  emotions,  the  feelings,  the  miseries  of 
the  victims  of  appetite,  in  aptness  of  anecdote  and  illustra- 
tion, in  pathos,  and  humor,  and  perfect  control  over  the 
passions  of  his  hearers,  he  was  far  superior  to  them  all.  I 
heard  him  with  delight,  and  I  never  afterwards  missed  an 
opportunity  to  hear  him  again — even  down  to  the  last  time, 
when  he  spoke  in  this  hall,  about  a  year  ago — when  it  was 
«lear  to  me  that  his  powers  were  waning — that  the  light  of 
his  genius  was  flickering — 

"  For  age  will  rust  the  brightest  blade, 
And  Time  will  break  the  stoutest  bow." 


138  JOHN   B.   GOUGH. 

But  the  fire  of  John  B.  Gough  was  still  there — smoulder- 
ing— and  occasionally  burst  forth  in  all  its  pristine  splen- 
dor. 

We  talk,  in  our  vanity,  of  the  triumphs  of  oratory  and 
eloquence,  of  the  achievements  of  intellect  and  genius,  but 
these  are  trifles.  They  are  something — they  are  sought  after 
with  feverish  anxiety,  but  they  are  bubbles,  they  are  drops, 
they  are  less  than  dust  in  the  balance,  when  compared  with 
the  glory  of  a  sublime  moral  purpose,  informing,  animating 
and  enthusing  the  whole  man.  The  true  beauty  and  the  les- 
son of  John  B.  Gough'slife  was  that  he  consecrated  his  mar- 
vellous gifts  to  the  redemption  of  the  race  from  the  thraldom 
of  evil  habit,  and  the  moral  elevation  of  his  fellow-men  to  that 
comfort,  that  plenty,  that  happiness,  that  dignity,  that  self- 
respect,  that  tranquility  of  mind,  which  he  knew  would  fol- 
low their  emancipation  from  the  slavery  of  intemperance. 
It  is  in  this  character  that  he  did  his  great  work,  and  al- 
though he  achieved  an  enduring  fame  in  other  fields,  he 
never  seemed  quite  at  home  unless  he  was  hurling  the  shin- 
ing weapons  of  his  wit,  his  pathos,  his  invective,  his  appeal, 
squarely  in  the  face  of  the  demon  of  evil  habit.  That  he 
wrought  out  greater  results  for  temperance  than  any  other 
man  who  ever  trod  a  platform,  reclaimed  more  men  from 
drunkenness,  and  brought  happiness  to  more  desolate 
homes,  is  certain.  Not  in  vain  did  he  travel  500,000  miles, 
nor  were  his  words  thrown  away  upon  the  eight  million 
people  who  heard  him.  A  poor  woman  in  Edinburgh,  in 
giving  him  a  handkerchief,  said  :  -'When  he  wipes  the  sweat 
from  his  brow,  in  speaking,  tell  him  to  remember  he  has 
wiped  away  a  great  many  tears,  while  in  Edinburgh."  That 
tells  the  story,  and  he  so  wrought  for  forty-four  years. 
Who  can  tell  how  many  he  plucked  from  the  burning,  and 
how  many  he  was  the  means  of  saving  from  want  and  mis- 
ery ?  What  a  noble  life !  How  awfully  begun,  but  how 
gloriously  ended.  For  he  was  faithful  to  the  very  end,  and 
died,  literally  in  harness,  as  he  would  have  wished.  On 
Monday  evening,  February  15th,  he  was  lecturing  in  Phil- 


JOHN   B.   GOUGH.  139> 

adelphia,  and  had  spoken  for  half  an  hour  with  his  accus- 
tomed vigor  and  eloquence,  when  his  head  dropped  upon 
his  breast,  he  fell  prostrate  to  the  floor,  and  remained  in  an 
unconscious  condition  till  the  end  came,  three  days  after. 
He  had  been  stricken  with  paralysis  of  the  tongue — he  had 
literally  worn  out  his  vocal  organs  in  speaking  for  the  good 
of  his  fellow-men.  His  last  words  on  the  platform  were : 
"  Young  man,  make  your  record  clean."  How  strangely 
significant,  and  how  strangely  in  keeping  with  that  elo- 
quent, warning  voice,  which  had  rung  like  a  clarion  in  the 
ears  of  millions  in  the  United  States  and  Great  Britain  for 
forty-four  years  of  his  knightly  crusade  in  behalf  of  total 
abstinence.  For  this  we  honor  him  chiefly  to-day.  For 
this  he  was  mourned  by  multitudes  of  men  whom  he  had 
redeemed.  For  this  let  the  memory  be  held  sacred  in  all 
future  time  of  the  great  evangel  of  temperance  to  England 
and  America. 

During  the  past  year,  in  our  country,  several  great  and 
illustrious  men  have  been  borne  to  the  grave  with  all  the 
pomp  and  pageantry  of  national  grief.  No  such  observan- 
ces waited  upon  the  quiet  sepulture  of  the  great  apostle  of 
temperance,  at  his  own  beautiful  "  Hillside."  And  yet,  it 
is  doubtful  if  even  the  most  renowned  of  our  national  he- 
roes has  done  more  good  in  his  day  and  generation,  or  con- 
ferred more  lasting  blessings  upon  humanity  than  John  B. 
Gough.  So  will  it  be  doubtless,  till  the  end  of  man's  pil- 
grimage upon  earth — our  greatest  benefactors  will  be  too 
lightly  esteemed,  and  we  shall  never,  till  the  millenial  day,, 
hold  the  victories  of  peace  as  high  as  the  victories  of  war. 


DANIEL  M.  CHRISTIE. 


[Remarks  addressed  to  the  Supreme  Court  of  New  Hampshire,  at  the 
trial  term,  February,  1877,  at  Dover.] 

MAY  IT  PLEASE  YOUR  HONOR : — I  rise  to  formally 
announce  an  event,  the  unwelcome  intelligence  of  which 
has  already  come  to  the  court  by  common  report.  The 
Hon.  Daniel  M.  Christie,  the  most  distinguished  mem- 
ber of  this  bar,  and  the  most  eminent  counsellor  of 
this  court,  departed  this  life,  at  his  residence  in  this 
city,  on  the  8th  day  of  December  last,  at  the  advanced 
age  of  86  years.  His  brethren  of  the  bar  of  Straf- 
ford  county,  whose  leader  and  ornament  and  pride 
he  was  for  so  many  years,  profoundly  impressed  by  this 
event,  and  desiring  to  do  whatever  is  in  their  power  to 
acknowledge  the  supremacy,  illustrate  the  virtues,  and 
honor  the  memory  of  this  great  man,  have,  with  entire 
unanimity,  adopted  resolutions  expressive  of  the  high  sense 
entertained  by  the  bar  of  the  eminent  character  and  ser- 
vices of  Mr.  Christie,  and  their  sincere  sympathy  and  con- 
dolence with  those  friends  whom  his  loss  affected  more 
nearly ;  and  have,  with  a  partiality  which  I  gratefully 
acknowledge,  imposed  upon  me  the  honorable  duty  of  pre- 
senting them  to  the  court.  In  the  performance  of  that 
duty,  I  will,  by  leave  of  the  court,  read  the  resolutions 
which  have  been  adopted  by  the  bar,  and  respectfully  move 
that  they  be  entered  upon  the  records  of  the  court  : 

Resolved,  That  we  have  heard  with  profound  sensibility  of  the  death 
of  the  Hon.  Daniel  M.  Christie,  the  oldest  and  most  distinguished 
member  of  this  bar,  who  has,  by  a  long  life  of  arduous  labor,  fidelity 
to  duty,  and  spotless  integrity  in  every  relation  of  life,  adorned  and 
elevated  the  profession  of  the  law,  and  imparted  dignity  and  luster  to 
the  jurisprudence  of  our  state. 


DANIEL  M.   CHRISTIE.  141 

Resolved,  That  in  the  long,  honorable,  and  conspicuous  career  of  Mr. 
Christie — chiefly  as  a  counsellor  and  advocate  at  this  bar — distin- 
guished by  great  learning,  sound  judgment,  unwearied  industry,  and 
unsurpassed  fidelity  to  every  personal  and  professional  obligation,  we 
recognize  those  qualities  which  entitled  him  to  the  respect  and  venera- 
tion which  were  universally  entertained  for  him  ;  and  that,  by  his  wis- 
dom, prudence,  and  conscientious  attention  to  all  the  duties  of  good 
citizenship,  he  exerted  a  great  and  salutary  influence  upon  the  com- 
munity in  which  he  lived. 

Resolved,  That  we  take  pride  in  recording  our  high  estimate  of  his 
extraordinary  intellectual  endowments,  his  exalted  principles,  and  ele- 
vated standard  of  private  and  professional  morality,  and  commend  his 
virtues  and  excellences  of  character  to  the  imitation  of  the  members 
of  the  profession  which  he  pursued  with  such  assiduity,  and  such 
remarkable  honor  and  success. 

Resolved,  That  we  deeply  sympathize  with  the  family  of  Mr.  Christie 
in  the  bereavement  which  has  deprived  them  of  an  indulgent  father 
and  faithful  friend,  and  respectfully  offer  them  such  consolation  as 
may  be  found  in  the  heartfelt  condolence  of  the  bar,  whose  leader  and 
exemplar  he  was  for  nearly  fifty  years,  and  whose  affection  and  vener- 
ation he  had  gained  by  his  preeminent  abilities.and  blameless  life. 

Resolved,  That  the  secretary  communicate  a  copy  of  these  resolu- 
tions to  the  family  of  Mr.  Christie,  and  that  the  committee  present 
them  to  the  court  now  in  session  in  this  county,  with  the  request  of 
the  bar  that  they  be  entered  upon  its  records. 

MAY  IT  PLEASE  YOUR  HONOR : — I  should  be  doing 
injustice  to  my  own  feelings  on  this  occasion,  if  I  were  to 
refrain  from  adding  a  few  words  at  least  to  the  expressions 
of  grief  and  sensibility  which  these  resolutions  contain. 

This,  of  all  places  in  the  world,  could  our  deceased  elder 
brother  have  selected  the  scene,  would  he  have  chosen 
for  pronouncing  above  his  grave  whatever  of  honorable 
praise  he  had  earned  by  a  life  of  high  exertion  in  an  exalted 
profession,  of  incorruptible  fidelity  to  every  trust,  and 
unsullied  honor  in  all  the  relations  of  life.  And  here,  cer- 
tainly, in  this  building  whose  walls  will  be  forever  associ- 
ated with  his  name  and  his  labors,  it  is  appropriate  that 
such  honors  as  the  living  can  pay  to  the  dead  should  not 
be  denied  to  him.  Others  there  are,  older  than  myself,  and 
whose  opportunities  of  observation  have  extended  over  a 


142  DANIEL   M.   CHRISTIE. 

larger  period  than  mine,  who  can  better  inform  the  court 
of  the  varied  incidents  of  his  long  and  useful  life,  and  to 
their  hands  I  shall  mainly  leave  the  task,  contenting  myself 
with  a  brief  outline  of  his  professional  career,  and  some 
imperfect  estimate  of  his  powers  and  standing  among  the 
lawyers  of  his  time. 

Mr.  Christie  was  born  at  Antrim,  N.  H.,  on  the  15th  of 
October,  1790.  He  had  no  adventitious  aids  in  youth. 
He  labored  on  a  farm  in  his  earlier  years,  and,  without 
wealth,  or  powerful  friends,  or  patronage  to  lean  upon, 
after  surmounting  the  obstacles  usually  encountered  by 
farmers'  sons  in  our  agricultural  towns,  he  entered  Dart- 
mouth college,  and  was  graduated  there  in  1815,  at  the 
head  of  a  class  of  men  of  eminence,  of  which  he  was  the 
last  surviving  member.  He  studied  law  three  years  in  the 
office  of  James  Walker,  of  Peterborough,  began  the  practice 
in  York,  Me.,  practised  there  and  at  South  Berwick  till  1823, 
when  he  removed  to  this  city,  where  he  ever  after  resided. 
He  entered  upon  professional  practice  here  with  character- 
istic energy,  pursued  it  with  singular  zeal  and  assiduity, 
and  rapidly  rose  in  the  estimation  of  the  bench,  the  bar,  and 
the  public.  He  was  a  contemporary  of  Jeremiah  Mason, 
Jeremiah  Smith,  Daniel  Webster,  Ichabod  Bartlett,  and 
George  Sullivan — being  about  twenty-five  years  the  junior 
of  Smith  and  Mason,  and  but  few  years  younger  than  the 
others.  In  the  early  years  of  his  professional  life  those 
great  men  not  infrequently  appeared  in  the  trial  of  causes 
in  this  county,  and  the  old  court  house  still  stands  here 
among  us  which  witnessed  the  stirring  struggles  of  these 
intellectual  gladiators  and  whose  walls  resounded  to  the 
voices  of  their  eloquence.  With  these  high  examples 
before  him,  and  these  high  rivalries  and  contentions  to 
stimulate  him,  he  "must,"  in  the  language  of  Mr.  Webster, 
"  have  been  unintelligent  indeed  not  to  have  learned  some- 
thing from  the  constant  displays  of  that  power  which  he  had 
so  much  occasion  to  see  and  to  feel."  That  he  did  learn 
much  from  that  great  intercourse  and  contention  of  kin- 


DANIEL   M.   CHRISTIE.  143 

•died  minds — the  trophies  of  Miltiades  disturbing  his  sleep 
— there  is  abundant  evidence  in  the  rapid  and  sure  strides, 
no  step  backward,  with  which  he  came  up  and  forward, 
•even  among  such  rivals,  to  a  high  professional  eminence. 
There  are  many  proofs  of  the  high  respect  with  which  all 
these  great  men,  whose  marvelous  powers  gave  dignity  and 
luster  to  the  bar  of  New  Hampshire  in  its  golden  age, 
regarded  him  and  his  attainments.  He  continued  in  the 
full  practice  of  the  law  here  for  about  fifty  years,  engaged 
in  nearly  every  important  case  tried  in  this  county  up  to 
the  year  1870 — many  years  after  the  great  luminaries 
of  the  law — the  contemporaries  of  his  early  professional 
life — had  sunk  below  the  horizon. 

He  had  but  little  relish  for  public  life,  and  never  sought 
political  office,  although  he  had  political  principles  and 
convictions  of  the  most  decided  character  and  took  a  deep 
and  lively  interest  in  all  great  public  questions.  He  was, 
however,  elected  to  the  legislature  as  early  as  1826,  and 
during  the  next  forty  years  he  was  returned  to  that  body, 
from  the  town  and  city  of  Dover,  on  eleven  different  occa- 
sions. This  was  about  the  entire  extent  of  his  holding 
public  office.  But,  since  he  never  refused  the  summons  of 
the  public  to  any  duty,  and  was  more  than  once  a  candi- 
date for  high  stations,  it  may  perhaps  fairly  be  said  that  his 
'exclusion  from  the  higher  walks  of  official  life  was  mainly 
due  to  the  fact  that  during  nearly  his  whole  life  he  was  not 
in  accord  with  the  political  sentiments  which  controlled  the 
state  in  which  he  lived.  Many  regrets  have  been  expressed 
that  the  doors  of  preferment  were  thus  closed  upon  a  man 
who,  serving  his  country  in  any  conspicuous  sphere,  would 
have  advanced  its  honor,  promoted  its  prosperity,  elevated 
its  dignity,  enlightened  its  mind,  purified  its  morality,  and 
lifted  its  policy  to  a  higher  plane  of  statesmanship.  But 
«certain  I  am  that  this  enforced  exclusion  from  the  councils 
of  the  nation  cost  Mr.  Christie  no  pangs  of  regret,  and 
that  never  for  one  moment  did  it  occur  to  him  to  secure 
•that  recognition  which  his  great  abilities  merited  by  any 


144  DANIEL  M.   CHRISTIE. 

subserviency  to  sentiments  and  methods  which  his  reason- 
and  conscience  did  not  accept.  It  was  ever  his  aim — never 
forgotten — and  his  rule — never  violated — to  preserve  his 
personal  rectitude,  as  the  richest  treasure  any  man  can 
possess. 

It  would  seem  to  be  superfluous  to  speak  of  the  intellect- 
ual greatness  of  Mr.  Christie  before  a  tribunal  which  has 
been  so  often  charmed  and  enlightened  by  the  displays  of  his 
power.  But,  unfortunately,  so  modest  was  the  great  man 
whose  loss  we  now  deplore,  so  reserved,  so  careless  of  his 
achievements  and  fame,  so  content  with  circumscribing  his 
professional  employments  almost  within  the  limits  of  the 
small  county  in  which  he  dwelt,  and  never,  that  I  am  aware 
of,  going  beyond  his  own  state  in  a  professional  capacity,  and 
so  fleeting  indeed  are  the  records  and  impressions  of  the 
nisi  prius  trials  in  which  he  principally  gathered  in  his 
fame,  so  transitory  even  the  remembrances  of  these  con- 
flicts and  struggles  which  so  rapidly  pass  out  of  contempo- 
rary memory  and  are  gone  forever,  that  it  would  seem 
desirable,  if  it  might  be,  for  the  court  and  the  bar  to 
place  on  record  somewhere  some  suitable  memorial  of  the 
intellectual  power  of  such  a  man  as  Mr.  Christie, — some- 
thing which  might  rescue  some  of  his  striking  traits  of 
character  from  the  oblivion  that  soon  shrouds  the  fame  of 
the  practising  lawyer,  and  inform  the  future  generations  of 
our  people,  and  especially  his  successors  at  the  bar,  that  a 
great  man  has  fallen  here  and  now.  I  trust,  therefore,  that 
your  honor,  and  my  brothers  of  the  bar  who  are  to  follow 
me  in  this  tribute  of  respect  to  his  memory,  will  commem- 
orate his  remarkable  gifts  and  services  in  language  of 
enduring  and  permanent  value,  leaving  u  something  so 
written  to  after  times,  as  they  should  not  willingly  let  it 
die." 

Mr.  Christie  did  not  reach  his  ultimate  greatness,  as  some 
men  do,  at  a  bound,  but  his  was  a  steady  growth,  and  labo- 
rious ascent  to  the  tablelands  of  the  law.  Through  a  long 
series  of v  arduous  exertions  he  "ever  great  and  greater 


DANIEL   M.   CHRISTIE.  145 

grew,"  until  for  years  before  his  death  I  think  the  front 
rank  and  the  leadership — primus  inter  primes — of  the  front 
rank  in  the  profession  of  the  law  was  accorded  to  him  by 
the  universal  voice  of  the  profession  and  the  bench  in  New 
Hampshire.  So  various  and  so  large  were  his  powers  and 
his  attainments,  that  it  is  difficult  to  make  a  critical  analy- 
sis or  estimate  of  his  capacity.  Mr.  Webster  said  the  char- 
acteristics of  Mr.  Mason's  mind  were  real  greatness, 
strength^  and  sagacity.  I  have  often  thought  this  concise 
summary  to  be  equally  true  of  and  applicable  to  Mr.  Chris- 
tie. He  was  certainly  a  man  of  extraordinary  endowments, 
and  these  had  been  wonderfully  cultivated,  improved, 
invigorated,  and  strengthened  by  the  untiring  industry  of 
a  long  life  given  to  the  law,  with  a  singleness  of  heart  and 
purpose  which  disarmed  the  jealousy  of  that  proverbially 
jealous  mistress.  He  had  prodigious  industry,  and  could 
work  terribly.  He  had  indomitable  will  and  tenacity  of 
purpose.  He  had  good  sense  and  sound  judgment.  He 
had  a  vast  and  exact  memory.  He  had  a  logical  and  capa- 
cious understanding.  In  volume  of  intellect,  in  ability  to 
grasp  a  legal  proposition,  or  grapple  with  a  problem  or  an 
argument,  in  pure  and  simple  brain  power,  he  certainly 
had  no  superior  if  any  equal  in  New  Hampshire  in  these 
later  years  of  his  life,  and  I  doubt  if  in  the  annals  of  our 
illustrious  jurisprudence,  or  in  the  list  of  our  great  forensic 
names,  he  was  ever  surpassed. 

He  was  not  quick  of  apprehension — he  was  cautious, 
wary,  and  slow  to  advise.  He  never  promoted  litigation, 
but  often  discouraged  it  by  refusing  to  give  any  guaran- 
tees of  success.  He  observed  the  precept  of  old  Polonius,  to 

"  Beware 

Of  entrance  to  a  quarrel ;  but,  being  in, 
Bear't  that  the  opposed  may  beware  of  thee." 

When  once  engaged  he  was  laborious  to  the  last  degree, 
and  never  came  to  the  trial  of  a  case  without  the  most  thor- 
10 


146  DANIEL    M.   CHRISTIE. 

ough,  painstaking,  and  exhaustive  preparation.  He  spared 
no  time  or  labor,  he  turned  the  night  into  the  day,  he 
shrunk  from  no  diligence  or  exhaustion,  he  studied  his 
cases  over  and  over,  and  through  and  through,  and  looked 
at  them  in  every  possible  aspect ;  and  when  he  came  to  the 
trial,  his  thorough  understanding  of  his  case,  its  weakness 
as  well  as  its  strength,  his  anticipation  of  every  possible 
position  of  his  adversary,  and  his  complete  devotion  to  his 
cause  and  his  client,  made  him  the  most  formidable  antag- 
onist any  man  could  encounter.  Entering  the  lists  on  some 
occasions  with  some  of  the  leaders  of  the  American  bar, 
they  found  him  a  foeman  worthy  of  their  steel,  and  in 
the  encounters  which  ensued  he  was  never  vanquished. 
Though  so  apparently  timid  and  hesitating  at  the  outset, 
he  had  immense  combativeness,  and  used  to  say  that  he 
loved  the  smell  of  battle.  When  once  launched  upon  a 
trial,  he  was  a  great  ship  of  the  line  moving  into  action  and 
bearing  down,  black  and  frowning,  upon  his  adversary,  with 
all  sails  set,  decks  cleared,  and  every  gun  shotted  to  the 
muzzle.  At  such  times  he  was  a  spectacle  of  grandeur, 
and  I  appeal  to  your  honor,  and  every  gentleman  of  the  bar 
who  has  ever  been  put  to  the  trying  test  of  being  his  antag- 
onist, that  when  he  seated  himself  for  the  struggle  you 
always  saluted  him  with  homage,  and  felt  that  though  he 
might  be  out-manoeuvered  or  worsted  by  dexterity  and 
adroitness  in  avoiding  a  close  encounter,  it  was  a  hopeless 
struggle  for  any  adversary  who  should  come  within  range 
of  his  terrific  broadside. 

Mr.  Christie  was  less  eloquent  than  many  men  in  the 
ordinary  acceptation  of  that  term.  But  as  an  advocate 
before  juries,  and  before  the  full  bench  upon  great  ques- 
tions, he  was,  nevertheless,  great  and  almost  invincible. 
He  had  not  great  readiness,  or  fullness,  or  felicity  of 
speech,  he  did  not  command  a  very  copious  vocabulary, 
but  he  had  words  enough  to  express  the  most  vigorous 
thought  and  the  most  accurate  shades  of  meaning. 
His  great  strength  lay  rather  in  his  skilful  presen- 


DANIEL  M.   CHKISTIE.  147 

tation  of  strong  points,  and  his  logical  and  sinewy 
argument, — simple,  direct,  ordinarily  unadorned  by  any 
imagery,  and  free  from  any  flights  of  fancy.  He  took 
no  circuitous  routes,  but  pressed  straight  home  to  his 
object  with  a  pace  so  steady  and  strong  and  sustained  that 
it  could  not  fail  to  bring  him  to  the  goal.  He  had  great 
power  of  sarcasm  and  invective,  and  had  a  keen  sense  of 
the  ludicrous,  which  seemed  to  me  to  be  a  late  outgrowth 
of  his  mind,  and  to  grow  keener  and  sharper  as  he  grew 
older.  Many  anecdotes  might  be  told  illustrative  of  this 
quality,  but  the  bench  and  the  bar  remember  vividly,  I  am 
sure,  some  of  his  later  efforts  on  occasions  of  importance, 
when  this  might}7  man  would  not  only  lift  the  court  and 
jury  and  spectators  up  to  his  clear  and  luminous  view  of 
the  law  and  the  justice  of  his  case,  but  amused  and  some- 
times convulsed  all  who  heard  him  by  his  quaint  humor,  by 
curious  turns  of  expression,  and  grotesque  comparisons  and 
illustrations,  of  the  wit  of  which  he  seemed  to  be  sublimely 
unconscious.  But  he  never  put  himself  on  parade.  These 
were  all  tributary  to  the  stream  of  his  argument  and  his 
purpose,  and  flowed  in  and  along  the  channel  of  his  reason 
and  logic,  like  flowers  on  the  bosom  of  the  Mississippi. 

The  degree  of  Doctor  of  Laws  was  conferred  upon  Mr. 
Christie  by  his  Alma  Mater  in  1857,  and  his  acknowledged 
eminence  as  a  jurist  is  abundantly  attested  by  the  offer  on 
two  occasions  of  the  chief-justiceship  of  the  court — a  court 
which  can  boast  that  a  Smith,  a  Richardson,  a  Parker,  and 
a  Perley  have  occupied  its  highest  seat.  But  he  declined 
judicial  station,  although  none  can  doubt  that  he  would 
have  filled  and  adorned  it  with  consummate  learning,  wis- 
dom, and  integrity.  In  fact,  from  all  we  know  of  him,  we 
must  believe  him  to  have  been  equal  to  every  possible  occa- 
sion a  lawyer  might  be  called  upon  to  meet,  and  I  think  it 
would  be  the  unanimous  opinion  of  the  profession  that  he 
would  have  been  as  great  and  conspicuous  in  any  forum  as 
he  was  here. 

A  glance  at  him  showed  him  to  be  no  ordinary  man. 


148  DANIEL   M.   CHRISTIE. 

His  personal  appearance  was  noble  and  commanding.  His 
imposing  dignity,  his  austere  demeanor,  "his  look,  drawing 
audience,"  his  Jove-like  head  and  towering  brow,  singled 
him  out  as  a  king  among  men.  As  for  myself,  whatever 
the  opinion  of  others  may  be,  I  long  since  concluded  that 
my  knowledge  of  other  men  had  furnished  me  no  measur- 
ing lines  wherewith  to  estimate  his  full  intellectual  strength 
and  power. 

Mr.    Christie    was   bred    to    the    common    law,  and   his 
admiration  for  that  noble  science,  for  its  severe  methods, 
its  intricate  reasonings,  and  for  its  august  uses  and  capaci- 
ties as  a  means  of  determining  right  and  enforcing  justice 
in  civilized  society,  was  unbounded.     For  many  years  pre- 
vious to  his  death  he  must  have  been  the  greatest  living 
expositor  among  us  of  the  common  law  of  England,  which 
Lord  Coke  called  "  the  perfection  of  reason."     He  did  not 
take  kindly  to  the  modern  codes  of  practice,  which,  in  his 
opinion,  degraded  the  study  of  the  law  from  a  science  to  a 
trade,  the   tools  of   which   any  rude   and  untrained  hand 
might  wield.     Nor  was  he  in  love  any  the  more  with  the 
systems  of  equity,  which  during  the  last  fifty  years  have  so 
much  usurped  the  province  and  superseded,  whether  or  not 
they  have  enlarged,  the  uses  of  the  common  law,  and  sup- 
planted the  forms   of   procedure   which  had  received   the 
sanction    of   so    many   generations   of   great   lawyers   and 
judges.     He  seldom  resorted  to  it  in  practice,  and  I  have 
heard  him  on  more  than  one  occasion  express  his  distrust 
of  and  impatience  with  the  loose  methods  of  equity  proced- 
ure by  reference  to  the  well-known  saying  of  Selden,  that 
u  equity  is  according  to  the  conscience  of  him  that  is  chan- 
cellor, and  as  that  is  larger  or  narrower,  so  is  equity.     "Tis 
all  one  as  if  they  should  make  the  standard  for  the  meas- 
ure we  call  a  foot  a  chancellor's  foot ;  what  an  uncertain 
measure  would  this  be  ?     One  chancellor  has  a  long  foot, 
another  a  short  foot,  a  third  an  indifferent  foot.     'T  is  the 
same  in  the  chancellor's  conscience." 

Of  course  it  was  a  necessary  and  inevitable  corollary  of 


DANIEL   M.    CHRISTIE.  149 

such  views  that  he  should  be  conservative,  and  slow  to 
sanction  a  departure  from  the  settled  principles  of  law  and 
decisions  of  the  courts.  But  although  stare  decisis  was  his 
motto,  no  man  was  more  bold  and  fearless  than  he  in 
attacking  anything  which  he  was  profoundly  convinced  was 
wrong,  or  unsupported  by  reason.  The  certainty  of  the  law 
was  to  him  of  inestimable  value,  but  he  held  firmly  to  the 
letter  and  spirit  of  the  maxim  of  the  great  judgment  in 
Cogys  v.  Bernard,  that  "  nothing  is  law  that  is  not 
reason." 

Such  a  man,  so  lavishly  endowed  by  nature,  so  equipped 
by  study  and  reflection,  and  filling  so  large  a  space  in  the 
public  eye,  could  not  fail  to  impress  himself  upon  the 
judicial  history  of  his  time.  An  examination  of  our  reports 
covering  the  period  of  his  active  professional  life,  will 
prove  that  he  has  left  his  mark  upon  those  discussions  and 
adjudications  which  have  fashioned  the  jurisprudence  of 
our  state,  and  rounded  out  the  body  of  law  here  framed  in 
statutes  and  decisions  into  harmonious  proportions  that 
command  the  respect  of  the  profession  and  of  publicists  in 
all  parts  of  America  and  Europe. 

But  any  sketch  of  Mr.  Christie's  character  would  be 
imperfect  and  unjust  to  his  memory  which  should  fail  to 
call  attention  to  the  high  ethical  tone  of  his  professional 
life.  He  was  the  very  embodiment  of  a  high  professional 
morality.  He  had  a  profound  reverence  for  the  law,  and 
he  would  as  soon  have  poisoned  his  neighbor's  spring,  as 
knowingly  corrupt  the  fountains  of  justice,  two  atrocities 
which  my  Lord  Bacon  has  somewhere,  I  believe,  compared 
and  likened.  The  same  great  philosopher  and  moralist 
lays  it  down  that  "  the  greatest  trust  between  man  and  man 
is  the  trust  of  giving  counsel ;"  and  the  celebrated  barris- 
ter, Charles  Phillips,  said  that  "the  moment  counsel 
accepts  a  brief,  every  faculty  he  possesses  becomes  his 
client's  property.  It  is  an  implied  contract  between  him 
and  the  man  who  trusts  him."  Mr.  Christie  fully  accepted 
this  code  of  professional  obligation,  and  his  surrender  of 


150  DANIEL   M.    CHRISTIE. 

himself  and  all  his  powers  to  his  client  was  as  complete  and 
absolute  as  it  could  be,  consistently  with  the  restraints  of 
truth  and  honor.  When  he  accepted  his  brief,  whether  the 
case  was  small  or  large,  his  client  rich  or  poor,  that  client 
knew  that  he  had  secured  all  that  there  was  of  him, — his 
large  brain,  his  unrivalled  industry,  his  patience  in 
research,  his  infinite  attention  to  details,  and  that  nothing 
which  lay  in  human  power  would  be  spared  to  insure  suc- 
cess. The  members  of  this  bar  will  recall  memorable 
instances  of  this  conscientious  fidelity  to  his  client  and  his 
cause,  where  he  expended  the  energies  of  a  giant  upon 
causes  of  slight  importance  in  which  nothing  of  moment 
was  involved. 

He  also  had  a  great  respect  and  deference  for  the  bench, 
and  was  loftily  above  the  meanness  of  attempting  to  influ- 
ence the  court  improperly,  or  to  secure  its  approval  of  his 
views  by  any  other  means  than  the  soundness  of  his  argu- 
ment and  the  justice  of  his  cause.  No  man  ever  more  scru- 
pulously kept  the  oath,  and  every  part  of  it,  which  the 
attorney  of  the  court  takes  when  he  assumes  the  duties  of 
his  office. 

He  employed  his  efforts  and  influence  to  raise  and  purify 
the  character  of  the  profession,  "  ancient  as  magistracy  and 
necessary  as  justice ;"  and  no  maxim  was  more  insisted 
upon  by  him  than  that  which  "  holds  every  man  a  debtor 
to  his  profession,  from  the  which  as  men  of  course  do  seek 
to  receive  countenance  and  profit,  so  ought  they  of  duty  to 
endeavor  themselves  by  way  of  amends  to  be  a  help  and 
ornament  thereunto."  I  know  whereof  I  speak,  because 
personal  observation  has  taught  me  that  he  never  prosti- 
tuted his  great  powers  to  improper  or  even  questionable 
purposes.  In  those  delicate  questions  of  professional  duty 
which  arise  in  every  extended  practice,  he  gave  the  doubt 
against  his  own  interest.  There  were  classes  of  cases, 
especially  certain  defences,  in  which,  influenced  by  high 
views  of  public  morality  and  policy,  he  invariably  refused 
to  accept  a  retainer,  without,  however,  imputing  anything 


DANIEL    M.   CHRISTIE.  151 

improper  or  unprofessional  to  others  who  entertained  opin- 
ions and  adopted  practices  less  fastidious  in  that  regard. 
Nothing  would  induce  him  to  appear  in  any  capacity  which 
could  be  construed  into  an  apology  for  certain  offences 
against  the  law.  In  this  I  am  aware  that  he  differed  toto 
coelo  from  other  lawyers  not  less  eminent,  and  not  less  hon- 
orable, perhaps,  than  himself — and  I  only  mention  it  as  a 
certain  proof  of  his  high  and  scrupulous  character  as  an 
advocate,  and  that  he  thought  the  duties  of  good  citizen- 
ship were  paramount  to  every  personal  consideration.  He 
believed  a  lawyer's  honor  was  his  brightest  jewel,  and  to  be 
kept  unsullied,  even  by  the  breath  of  suspicion.  He  was 
straightforward,  honorable,  and  sincere  to  the  last  degree. 
He  had  no  covert  or  indirect  ways.  He  had  no  arts  but 
manly  arts ;  and  sooner  than  any  man  I  ever  knew  would 
I  select  him  as  a  model  to  be  imitated  in  this  respect. 

There  is  one  thing  which,  at  the  risk  of  being  tedious,  I 
wish  specially  to  note  to-day,  and  which  I  feel  called  upon 
to  say  in  behalf  of  the  many  men  who  have  sat  at  the  feet 
of  this  Gamaliel  of  the  law.  In  the  name  of  all  the  gener- 
ations of  his  students  I  wish  to  bear  testimony  that  in  the 
relation  of  master  and  pupil  he  was  one  of  the  most  instruc- 
tive, entertaining,  kind,  and  indulgent  men  in  the  world. 
In  his  office  the  austerity  which  he  wore  in  public  largely 
disappeared.  The  bow  was  unbent,  and  his  treatment  of 
his  students,  without  distinction  of  persons,  was  marked  by 
a  uniform  high  courtesy,  respect,  and  familiar  unrestraint. 
He  was  ever  ready  to  pour  out  his  knowledge,  the  matured 
fruits  of  his  experience  and  labor,  in  copious  streams  of 
delightful  talk  and  reminiscence,  in  which  he  brought  back 
vividly  before  the  listener  the  varied  incidents  of  his  long 
professional  career,  his  contests  at  the  bar,  his  personal 
recollections  of  great  men,  and  the  circumstances  attending 
the  settlement,  one  by  one,  of  the  main  principles  of  our 
jurisprudence.  At  such  times,  when  the  springs  of  his  rich 
and  inexhaustible  memory  were  unlocked,  he  would  come 
nearer  to  neglecting  business  and  clients  than  on  any  other 


152  DANIEL   M.   CHRISTIE. 

occasion,  as  he  turned  aside  to  linger  with  the  scenes  that 
came  trooping  from  the  chambers  of  the  past.  No  one,  I 
venture  to  say,  who  has  ever  enjoyed  the  rare  privilege  of 
being  his  pupil,  will  fail  to  appreciate  and  endorse  what  I 
now  say,  and  to  recall  some  hours  thus  spent  as  among  the 
most  valuable  and  best  of  his  life.  He  treated  his  young 
men  with  a  kindly  interest,  with  helpfulness,  and  indul- 
gence towards  weakness,  inexperience,  and  ignorance  of 
the  law,  and  followed  them  through  life  with  an  affection- 
ate regard,  never  hearing  any  good  of  them  without  rejoic- 
ing, nor  any  ill  without  sorrow  and  incredulity.  These 
generous  offices  entitled  him,  so  far  as  every  one  of  them  is 
concerned,  to  a  lasting  remembrance  of  the  heart — to  a  per- 
sonal attachment,  admiration,  and  veneration  which  never 
failed  him  in  life,  and  is  testified  to-day  by  the  sincere 
affection  of  every  man  who  ever  sat  at  his  feet  and  learned 
of  him. 

There  was  something  very  remarkable  in  the  manner  of 
his  teaching.  It  is  one  of  the  distinguishing  and  certain 
marks  of  greatness  in  a  man  that  he  is  in  essential  respects 
unlike  all  other  men.  I  think  the  acknowledged  great 
men  of  history  all  respond  to  this  test.  Mr.  Christie  was 
emphatically  a  man  of  that  stamp.  Who  was  ever  like 
him  ?  He  was  in  all  respects  sui  generis.  In  his  personal 
character,  his  habits  of  mind,  his  methods  of  investigation, 
he  was  grand,  solitary,  and  peculiar,  and  his  image  stands 
out  among  lawyers  as  clear  and  distinct  as  that  of  William 
Pinckney,  or  Jeremiah  Mason,  or  Daniel  Webster,  or  Rufus 
Choate.  And  in  such  a  powerful  manner  did  he  impress 
his  characteristics  upon  his  pupils  that  he  may  be  almost 
said  to  have  been  the  founder  of  a  school  of  legal  study 
and  dialectics,  as  Socrates  was  of  a  philosophy  of  investi- 
gation, and  his  was  as  severe,  and  rigid,  and  thorough. 
There  have  been  many,  indeed,  who  looked  upon  him  as 
their  intellectual  father — many  illustrious  names  who  have 
preceded  him  to  the  grave,  and  others  who  still  live  to  be 
the  lights  of  the  bar  and  the  forum.  Although  he  imparted 


DANIEL  M.   CHRISTIE.  153 

facts  and  principles  with  a  lavish  hand,  it  was,  after  all,  the 
spirit  of  his  teachings  which  was  of  most  value  to  the  stu- 
dent. Those  of  us  who  are  grateful  to  him,  and  to  the 
influence  of  his  mind  and  character,  as  many  of  us  are,  for 
what  we  feel  to  be  best  and  most  valuable  in  our  culture 
and  training,  are  grateful  not  so  much  for  any  direct  pre- 
cepts as  for  that  inspiring  lift  which  only  genius  can  sup- 
ply to  the  faculties.  He  fecundated  all  minds  that  came 
under  his  sway,  and  so  contagious  were  his  elevated  moral- 
ity and  his  ardor  in  the  pursuit  of  truth,  that  any  pupil  of 
his  who  should  not  exhibit  some  of  his  characteristics  in 
his  life  and  career  would  indeed  be  unintelligent  or  morally 
depraved. 

If  I  could  linger  to  do  so,  I  might  recount  Mr.  Christie's 
career  in  other  spheres  of  business,  and  find  in  it  titles 
quite  as  high  to  the  honor  and  respect  of  the  community 
as  he  won  for  himself  in  his  chosen  profession.  He  was  an 
officer  for  many  years  in  several  of  our  largest  corporations, 
and  discharged  his  responsibilities  in  that  capacity  with  the 
same  high  scrupulousness,  the  same  industry,  and  the  same 
conscientious  fidelit}-  to  his  trust  which  actuated  him  in 
the  law.  He  impressed  all  the  financial  institutions  in 
which  he  had  any  directory  part,  for  their  good,  and  ours, 
and  the  good  of  the  community,  with  the  stamp  of  his  own 
sturdy  integrity,  solidity,  and  soundness.  In  fine,  upon 
whatever  theatre  of  action  he  moved,  he  exhibited  a 
grandeur  and  individuality  of  character,  a  high  principle 
and  nice  sense  of  honor,  which  made  him  worthy  of  the 
imitation  of  all  who  are  to  succeed  him  in  the  high  places 
of  life.  He  had  in  a  large  degree  the  home-bred  virtues  of 
his  Scotch-Irish  ancestry,  mingled  with  much  of  the  spirit 
and  flavor  of  the  great  men  of  antiquity — the  indomitable 
will — the  severe  simplicity — the  rugged  integrity — the 
uncompromising  hatred  of  dishonesty  and  wrong — the 
genuine  contempt  for  weakness  and  pretense — the  austere 
private  virtue — the  unconsciousness  of  great  genius. 

In    this   hasty   and   imperfect   sketch   of  Mr.  Christie's 


154  DANIEL   M.    CHRISTIE, 

characteristics  I  have  but  one  thing  further  to  present,  and 
I  am  glad  that  I  am  not  obliged  to  close  without  saying 
this  which  ought  most  to  endear  him  to  the  common  men 
and  women  whom  he  has  left  behind  him.  I  am  able  to 
say  from  personal  knowledge  what  is  confirmed  by  affec- 
tionate unanimity  by  his  family,  that  in  the  home  circle  he 
was  always  sweet,  kind,  considerate,  and  indulgent.  The 
private  life  of  many  a  man  of  genius  is  a  domain  which 
cannot  be  entered  with  safety,  or  prudence,  or  delicacy. 
How  different  it  was  with  Mr.  Christie!  Here  is  no  for- 
bidden ground — and  how  thankful  to  God  we  are  and 
ought  to  be  to-day,  that  here  was  one  great  and  famous, 
man,  upon  every  hour  and  act  of  whose  private  life  and 
intercourse  with  friends  and  family  the  light  of  noon-day 
might  be  turned  with  microscopic  power  and  find  no  stain 
or  impurity.  That  he  was  upright,  exemplary,  and  dec- 
orous before  the  world,  we  all  know.  But  he  was  more.  He 
was  sound  and  sweet  to  the  core.  He  had  a  singular, 
almost  infantile,  guilelessness  of  mind,  and  cleanness  of 
speech  and  imagination.  The  inevitable  contact  with  vice 
and  depravity  which  came  to  him  through  the  varied  expe- 
riences of  a  long  life,  passed  in  attending  to  the  concerns  of 
others,  had  left  him  pure,  and  innocent,  and  uncontami- 
nated.  He  was  like  "the  sun,  which  passeth  through  pol- 
lutions and  itself  remains  as  pure  as  before."  In  this, 
respect  he  was  fortunate  beyond  most  men.  Suspicion 
never  assailed  his  private  life,  and  slander  fled  abashed 
from  his  presence. 

I  am  not  here  to  say  that  Mr.  Christie  was  without 
faults.  To  say  that,  would  be  to  think  and  ask  others  to 
believe  him  more  than  human.  But  they  were  fewer  than 
ordinarily  fall  to  the  lot  of  men,  and  bore  the  impress  of 
his  great  faculties,  and  his  life  of  arduous  labor  and  self- 
dependence.  It  is  a  singular  fact  that  while  his  foibles 
were  such  as  to  be  apparent  to  the  casual  observer,  some  of 
his  virtues  were  known  only  to  those  who  knew  intimately 
the  tenor  of  his  daily  life.  Those  who  knew  him  best  most 


DANIEL   M.    CHUISTIE.  155 

unreservedly  respected  and  admired  him.  He  took  no 
pains  to  conceal  himself.  He  never  courted  or  flattered  the 
people.  He  cared  not  for  applause — and  if  he  loved  and 
sought  wealth,  he  sought  it  by  no  unworthy  means,  and 
lived  and  died  with  clean  hands. 

As  I  recall  his  last  days  I  cannot  fail  to  recognize  how 
fitting  and  satisfactory  was  the  manner  of  his  death.  He 
had  laid  off  the  harness  of  his  busy  professional  life,  and 
sat  down  in  the  evening  of  his  days  by  his  own  fireside,  in 
the  sacred  seclusion  of  that  family  circle  of  whose  social 
affections  he  was  the  endeared  and  venerated  centre.  But 
the  great  mind  could  not  be  inactive,  and  he  turned  with 
delight  from  "  the  gladsome  light  of  jurisprudence "  to 
some  of  the  enchanting  English  authors  whose  enjoyments 
had  been  denied  him  by  the  cares  and  exactions  of  a  busy 
career.  I  am  told  that  Scott  and  Dickens  and  Thackeray 
and  our  other  English  classics  were  the  charm  and  consola- 
tion of  his  last  years,  and  were  enjoyed  with  the  keen 
relish  of  that  untainted  and  receptive  mind.  In  the  midst 
of  these  becoming  diversions,  not  unmingled  with  studies 
in  the  domain  of  the  august  profession  which  he  so  much 
loved,  he  was  called  away  from  these  scenes. 

"Oh,  fallen  at  length,  that  tower  of  strength, 
Which  stood  four-square  to  all  the  winds  that  blow ! " 

The  Nestor  of  our  bar  is  dead — 

"Clarum  et  venerabile  nomen!" 

and,  now  that  he  is  gone,  we  feel  and  see  what  a  large 
space  he  filled  in  the  ranks  of  the  profession.  Certainly  it 
may  appropriately  be  said  of  him,  as  was  said  of  Jeremiah 
Mason  by  his  great  compeer,  Rufus  Choate:  "He  is  dead; 
and  although  here  and  there  a  kindred  mind — here  and 
there,  rarer  still,  a  coeval  mind — survives,  he  has  left  no- 
one,  beyond  his  immediate  blood  and  race,  who  in  the  least, 
degree  resembles  him." 


156  DANIEL   M.   CHRISTIE. 

I  rejoice  with  bis  friends,  as  all  must,  that  until  the  last 
hour  of  his  long  and  useful  life,  until  disease  struck  him, 
as  it  were  in  a  moment,  from  the  list  of  the  living,  his  eye 
was  undimmed  and  his  wonderful  faculties  wholly  unim- 
paired. Endowed  by  nature  with  a  vigorous  constitution, 
and  temperate,  upright,  and  abstemious  in  his  habits  ever, 
he  had  suffered  scarcely  an  hour  of  sickness  during  his 
entire  life,  and  up  to  alm6st  the  very  moment  of  its  fall 
there  were  no  signs  of  dilapidation  in  that  stately  edifice. 
His  majestic  presence  was  in  our  streets,  the  venerable 
object  of  all  men's  respect  and  regard. 

"The  monumental  pomp  of  age 
Was  with  this  goodly  Personage ; 
A  statue  undepressed  in  size, 
Unbent,  which  rather  seemed  to  rise 
In  open  victory  o'er  the  weight 
Of  eighty  years,  to  loftier  height." 

And  so,  at  last,  after  a  life  of  honor,  of  integrity,  of  purity, 
of  strenuous  exertion,  all  crowned  by  a  renown  sufficient 
to  fill  and  which  did  fill  and  satisfy  a  reasonable  ambition, 
he  has  fallen  on  sleep.  Folding  his  arras  upon  his  breast, 
his  change  came  to  him  as  calmly  and  serenely  as  a  sum- 
mer sunset  mellows  the  scene  and  gilds  the  close  of  a  brave 
and  beautiful  day. 

"  Nothing  is  here  for  tears,  nothing  to  wail 
Or  knock  the  breast,  no  weakness,  no  contempt, 
Dispraise,  or  blame,  nothing  but  well  and  fair, 
And  what  may  quiet  us  in  a  death  so  noble." 

To  speak  the  truth  of  Mr.  Christie,  in  such  fashion  as  I 
can,  is  to  me  a  labor  of  love.  Although  in  earlier  years  I 
was  an  occasional  spectator  of  some  of  the  forensic  contests 
in  which  he  won  his  fame,  I  was  not  honored  by  his  per- 
sonal acquaintance  till  about  eighteen  years  ago,  when  I 
became  a  student  in  his  office.  He  was  then  at  the  zenith 
of  his  power  and  reputation,  and  the  high  estimate  I  had 


DANIEL   M.   CHRISTIE.  157 

already  formed  of  his  abilities  and  his  character  was. 
heightened  day  by  day  by  the  knowledge  which  I  gained 
of  him  in  an  intercourse  which  lasted  many  years — which  I 
may  perhaps  without  vanity  style  an  intimacy — and  which 
suffered  no  interruption  till  the  day  of  his  death.  If  I  may 
be  allowed  a  word  of  sensibility  personal  to  myself,  I 
would  say  that  he  was  so  uniformly  kind  and  gracious  and 
condescending  to  me,  from  the  first  hour  of  our  acquaint- 
ance, that  I  felt  his  death  an  irreparable  personal  loss,  and 
was  a  sincere  mourner  at  his  grave.  And  as  I  linger  a 
moment  to  drop  a  tear  on  his  bier,  I  feel  an  unfeigned  sor- 
row that  I  cannot  pay  a  more  suitable  and  adequate  tribute 
to  his  extraordinary  genius  and  the  rare  virtues  of  his 
character.  But  only  kindred  minds  are  able  to  portray  the 
qualities  of  such  a  mind  and  heart,  and  I  console  myself 
for  failure  with  the  reflection  that  but  few  remain  who  can 
appreciate  and  delineate  for  the  coming  generations  a  man 
so  largely  moulded  and  so  richly  gifted  as  he. 


EDWARD  F.  NOYES. 


jTrom  the  Dover  Republican  of  September  6,  1890.     Governor  Noyes 
died  September  4,  1890.] 

I  think  it  was  Edmund  Burke  who  once  said  of  a 
friend  that  "  he  had  n't  a  fault  in  the  world  that  did  not 
arise  from  the  excess  of  some  good  quality."  As  I  think, 
with  a  poignant  personal  grief,  of  the  manly  form  of 
Edward  F.  Noyes  lying  cold  in  death  to-day  in  that  deso- 
lated home  in  Ohio,  but  lately  so  warm  and  bright  with  his 
presence,  I  am  reminded  of  this  high  encomium  as  being 
almost  literally  due  to  that  knightly  gentleman  whose  inti- 
mate friendship  I  have  enjoyed  for  nearly  forty  years. 
The  sketch  in  the  Republican  this  evening  leaves  little  to 
be  said  touching  the  details  of  his  life.  It  outlines  with 
absolute  correctness  the  events  of  his  early  days  and  his 
military,  political,  and  judicial  career.  But  to  those  who 
have  known  him  intimately  for  so  many  years,  somewhat 
seems  to  be  wanting  of  tribute  to  his  remarkable  person- 
ality. I  will  not  here  indulge  in  reminiscences  of  his  boy- 
hood, or  review  my  own  first  glimpse  of  him, 


"  In  life's  morning  march, 
When  my  bosom  was  young.' 


Suffice  it  to  say  that  from  his  earliest  years  he  was  every- 
where a  delightful  and  controlling  presence,  impressing 
favorably  all  who  came  within  reach  of  his  influence.  In 
college  he  was  the  most  popular  and  noticeable  man  in  his 


EDWARD    F.    NOYES.  159 

-class,  and  gave  promise  of  the  future  distinction  which  he 
.attained.  In  1856,  while  still  an  undergraduate,  he  took 
the  stump  for  Fremont,  and  attracted  wide  and  admiring 
attention  as  a  youthful  orator. 

Going  to  Cincinnati,  by  accident  in  1857,  he  soon 
became  a  favorite  in  that  rich,  refined,  and  elegant  city, 
was  admitted  to  the  bar,  and  had  already  entered  upon  a 
successful  career,  when  the  war  opened  the  way  for  him, 
as  for  many  another  young  man,  to  another  destiny.  An 
ardent  anti-slavery  man  and  Republican,  he  entered  the 
military  service  in  1861  as  major  of  the  39th  Ohio  Volun- 
teers, was  with  his  regiment  in  many  battles  in  the  cam- 
paigns of  the  west,  and  rose  by  rapid  promotions  to  be  its 
colonel.  On  the  4th  of  July,  1864,  serving  under  Sher- 
man, and  leading  a  gallant  charge  at  Ruff's  Mills  on  the 
Chattahoochee  river  in  Georgia,  he  was  severely  wounded, 
and  in  consequence  lost  a  leg.  The  limb  was  amputated 
on  the  field,  but  so  unskilfully  that  it  had  to  be  again 
amputated  twice  in  the  hospital,  causing  him  to  suffer  the 
most  excruciating  agony,  which  he  barely  survived.  He 
was  brevetted  brigadier-general  in  1865. 

On  his  partial  recovery  from  his  wounds,  crippled  and 
penniless,  his  outlook  for  the  future  was,  as  I  have  heard 
him  say,  very  desperate ;  but  the  people  of  Cincinnati,  who 
never  afterwards  failed  him,  rallied  to  his  support,  and  in 
1865  and  1867  elected  him  successively  to  the  offices  of 
city  solicitor  of  Cincinnati,  and  judge  of  probate  of  Hamil- 
ton County.  The  latter  office  was  lucrative,  and  tided  him 
over  his  time  of  distress  and  difficulty.  So  faithful  were 
his  services  and  so  conspicuous  his  talents  that  he  was 
chosen  governor  of  Ohio  in  1871,  but  for  no  fault  of  his, 
but  through  the  over-confidence  of  his  party  in  the  "off 
year,"  1873,  he  was  defeated  by  a  few  votes  by  the  cele- 
brated William  Allen.  This  was  a  severe  blow  to  him,  and 
perhaps  the  turning  point  in  his  fortunes  ;  for  many  of  the 
most  discerning  commentators  upon  public  events  have 
.said  and  believed  that  if  Governor  Noj'es  had  been 


160  EDWARD   F.    NOTES. 

reflected  in  1873  he  would  have  been  nominated  and 
elected  president  of  the  United  States  in  1876,  instead  of 
Rutherford  B.  Hayes. 

Prompted  by  strong  personal  friendship,  as  well  as  by 
appreciation  of  his  abilities  and  recognition  of  the  brilliant 
services  he  rendered  to  him  and  the  party  in  the  campaign 
of  1876,  President  Hayes  made  Governor  Noyes  United 
States  minister  to  France,  and  he  held  that  place,  combin- 
ing its  duties  with  extensive  foreign  travel,  from  1877  to 
1881.  In  Paris  his  house  was  the  centre  of  an  elegant  and 
profuse  hospitality,  and  a  delightful  place  for  all  Ameri- 
cans. No  man  has  ever  performed  all  the  diplomatic  and 
social  duties  of  that  high  position  more  thoroughly,  or 
more  to  the  credit  of  his  country  than  he. 

His  career,  subsequent  to  his  resignation  in  1881,  is- 
recounted  accurately  in  the  Republican.  Considered 
intellectually,  Governor  Noyes  was  a  very  strong  man. 
Not  ordinarily  a  very  close  or  laborious  student,  he  yet  had 
the  capacity  to  thoroughly  master  any  subject  in  hand  at 
very  short  notice,  and  never  fell  short  of  the  demands  of 
any  situation  in  which  he  found  himself  placed.  For 
example,  his  political  life  had  withdrawn  him  largely  from 
the  study  of  the  law,  and  when  recently  chosen  to  the 
bench  of  the  superior  court  of  Cincinnati,  he  was,  of 
course,  not  fresh  in  the  knowledge  of  the  books  and  prece- 
dents. But  he  immediately  applied  himself  to  the  require- 
ments of  the  position,  and  with  such  great  and  immediate 
success  that,  by  the  universal  accord  of  bench,  bar,  and 
people,  he  in  a  short  time  became  an  accomplished  judge, 
and  at  his  death  was  laying  the  foundation  of  a  splendid 
judicial  reputation. 

But  public  speaking  was  the  passion  of  his  life.  In 
early  youth,  when  a  printer's  apprentice  here  in  Dover,  he 
was  deeply  interested  in  amateur  theatricals  and  the  prac- 
tice of  elocution.  This  practice  was  the  basis  of  his  great 
subsequent  success  as  a  public  speaker.  He  became  one  of 
the  finest  orators  of  the  country.  His  enthusiastic  and 


EDWARD   F.   NOYES.  161 

magnetic  nature,  his  noble  heart,  his  warm  imagina- 
tion, his  elevated  sentiments,  his  broad  and  deep  sym- 
pathies, his  rare  wit  and  humor,  his  rich  voice,  his 
fine  culture,  and  study  of  the  best  models, — all  these 
united  to  form  an  orator  of  the  highest  order,  sought 
and  welcomed  on  every  platform.  His  efforts  before 
great  popular  audiences  seeking  light  and  guidance  upon 
political  questions,  as  well  as  his  occasional  efforts  of 
another  kind,  like  his  speech  nominating  Mr.  Hayes  for  the 
presidency  at  the  Cincinnati  convention  in  1876,  his  eulogy 
on  Grant  at  Music  Hall  in  1885,  and  his  oration  at  the  ded- 
ication of  the  Cincinnati  Chamber  of  Commerce  in  1888, 
were  such  as  to  give  him  great  fame,  which  will  be  of  an 
enduring  character.  His  eloquence  was  warm,  impassioned, 
and  glowing,  like  his  nature — and  thousands  who  have 
been  roused  and  electrified  by  his  speech  will  never  cease 
to  rank  him  among  the  first  of  our  great  orators. 

But  his  friends  loved  the  man  more  than  the  orator.  My 
pen  will  not  essay  to  paint  the  charm  of  his  chivalric  bear- 
ing, his  princely,  almost  reckless,  generosity,  his  overflow- 
ing hospitality,  his  delight  in  the  presence  and  entertain- 
ment of  his  friends.  He  was  a  fascinating  man  in  private 
life,  a  genial  companion,  a  magnificent  raconteur,  a  gentle- 
man in  his  manners  and  language,  and  of  such  vivacity 
and  brilliancy  as  made  him  the  admired  centre  of  every 
social  circle  in  which  he  moved.  He  was  a  public-spirited 
citizen,  a  good  husband,  devotedly  attached  to  his  home,  a 
fond  father,  and  a  faithful  and  loyal  friend.  As  his  popu- 
lar manners,  known  sincerity,  and  eloquent  speech  swayed 
the  people,  so  his  noble  inherent  qualities  of  head  and 
heart  enchained  his  personal  friends. 

But  alas !  all  this  genius,  all  this  oratorical  achievement, 
all  this  warm  affection,  this  genial  presence,  this  flowing 
courtesy  and  abandon  which  were  so  genuine  an  effluence 
of  the  generous  heart  within — all  these,  and  how  can  we, 
ever  forget  them  ? — are  hidden  in  a  too  early  grave  ! 

But, 

11 


162  EDWARD   F.   NOYES. 

"  To  live  in  hearts  we  leave  behind, 
Is  not  to  die." 

These  precious  memories  and  impressive  admonitions 
should  not  and  will  not  be  lost  upon  the  many  men  and 
women  all  over  the  laud  who  had  learned  to  love  Edward 
F.  Noyes.  To  those  of  us  of  his  age  the  shadows  of  life  are 
rapidly  lengthening.  In  the  short  span  that  still  remains, 
shall  we  ever  see  another  combining  so  attractively  nearly 
all  the  human  traits  that  command  attachment  and 
admiration  ? 

Statesman,  soldier,  patriot,  orator,  jurist,  friend  of  my 
early  and  later  days,  farewell ! 


ANDREW  H.  YOUNG. 


[From  the  Dover  Republican  of  Dec.  15,  1890.     Col.  Young  died  Dec. 

10,  1890.] 

I  have  not  felt  that  I  could  write  anything  about  this 
dear  and  valued  friend.  I  venture  upon  a  few  words  with 
great  reluctance.  My  intimacy  with  him  was  such  as  men 
shrink  from  displaying  to  the  public  gaze  ;  but  at  the  same 
time  it  gave  me  a  view  of  his  character  vouchsafed  to  only 
a  few  of  his  dearest  friends. 

Those  who  have  written  of  him  within  a  few  days  past 
have  recorded  an  appreciative  estimate  of  his  virtues,  and 
his  reputation  is  one  of  which  his  family  and  friends  can 
find  no  cause  to  complain.  But  I  have  known  him  for 
nearly  fifty  years,  and  by  seeing  him  often,  and  under 
many  circumstances,  in  domestic,  civil,  and  military  life, 
have  become  possessed  of  the  secrets  of  his  character  as  far 
as  those  are  ever  imparted  to  a  friend. 

Col.  Young  was  fortunate  in  his  birth  and  early  training 
in  a  country  town,  and  of  a  good  family  stock.  His  father 
was  a  man  noted  for  his  shrewd  mother  wit,  sound  judg- 
ment, and  practical  ability.  He  inherited  all  these  quali- 
ties from  his  father  in  a  high  degree,  and  supplemented 
them  with  a  fair  education,  an  early  introduction  to  affairs, 
and  a  more  than  usually  full  acquaintance  with  prominent 
men  in  all  departments  of  life.  I  have  heard  men  say  not 
infrequently  that  a  higher  education  would  have  made  him 
a  much  greater  man.  I  do  not  regard  this  as  at  all  certain. 
Education  long-continued  in  the  schools  sometimes  over- 
lays and  smothers,  or  impairs,  or  fetters  great  natural  capa- 


164  ANDREW   H.    YOUNG. 

city.  In  other  words  the  powers  of  some  men  do  not  work 
so  effectively  under  the  added  restraints  and  severities  of 
taste  and  self-criticism,  as  without  them.  I  have  known 
more  than  one  man  who  would  have  been  a  much  greater 
force  in  the  world  if  he  had  had  less  of  the  mere  book, 
learning  which  we  insist  upon  calling  education.  In  the 
case  of  Col.  Young,  able  and  successful  man  as  he  was, 
wielding  a  large  influence  in  the  community,  and  generally 
wielding  it  for  good,  I  am  quite  prepared  to  believe  that  his 
powers  had  freer  play  and  easier  scope  than  if  he  had 
delved  for  years  among  Greek  and  Latin  roots,  and  the 
mysteries  of  the  ologies.  But  this  is  a  province  of  mere 
conjecture,  and  as  we  stand  at  the  end  of  his  completed 
life,  it  is  impossible  to  tell  what  "  might  have  been," — and 
we  have  little  interest  in  the  inquiry,  since  we  are  so  well 
satisfied  with  what  he  was. 

Col.  Young  took  easy  rank  among  intellectual  men.  He 
had  an  inquiring  and- receptive  mind,  was  a  great  reader, 
and  remembered  with  a  good  deal  of  tenacity  what  he  had 
once  learned.  Consequently  he  always  left  the  impression 
of  a  man  of  strong  intelligence  and  wide  and  varied  infor- 
mation. He  appreciated  fully  the  highest  things  and  best 
people,  and  was  a  bright,  original,  witty,  and  interesting 
writer.  Many  of  his  letters,  some  addressed  to  me  and 
some  to  others,  have  been  read  and  re-read,  and  given  de- 
light to  large  circles  of  friends. 

His  youth  comes  up  vividly  before  me.  In  his  early 
years  he  worked  on  the  farm  and  worked  hard.  He  drove 
oxen  and  I  drove  horses  to  Dover  at  the  same  time.  We 
often  met  and  greeted  each  other  on  the  road ;  we  met  at 
the  church  door,  at  the  singing  school,  the  spelling  school, 
the  donation  party,  at  social  gatherings,  and  the  country 
lyceum,  and  thus  formed  that  early  friendship  which  has 
never  suffered  an  interruption,  and  has  been  one  of  the 
chief  comforts  and  supports  of  my  life.  He  took  an  early 
interest  in  politics,  but  was  condemned  to  the  minority  for 
a  number  of  years.  His  first  opportunity  for  a  broader  life 


ANDREW    H.   YOUNG.  165 

presented  itself  in  the  great  political  revolution  whose  first 
wave  broke  over  New  Hampshire  in  1855.  He  was  not 
slow  to  avail  himself  of  it,  and  easily  stepped  to  the  very 
front  of  the  movement  in  Barrington  and  the  county  of 
Straff ord.  He  was  elected  register  of  deeds,  and  since  then 
has  enjoyed  public  preferment  a  good  part  of  the  time.  He 
had  to  fight  his  way,  however,  from  the  start.  Some  short- 
sighted and  a  few  envious  people  were  jealous  of  that  influ- 
ence upon  those  around  him,  and  upon  the  course  of  events, 
which  he  exerted  as  naturally  and  easily  as  he  drew  breath. 
He  rarely  failed  to  disarm  the  hostility  of  the  men  he  came 
in  contact  with.  His  geniality,  his  unfailing  good  nature, 
his  rich  fund  of  anecdote,  and  his  invincible  determination 
to  have  no  personal  difficulty  with  anybody,  always 
brought  him  off  conqueror  of  men's  hearts.  I  recall  but 
one  prominent  man  who  was  irreconcilable  to  the  end. 
Even  he  loved  him — but  he  could  n't  abide  the  idea  that  an 
upstart  from  Barrington  should,  by  finesse,  and  skill,  and 
good  fellowship,  and  a  profound  understanding  of  men, 
wrest  caucuses  and  conventions  out  of  his  hand,  with  such 
consummate  ease. 

I  do  not  think  Col.  Young  ever  suffered  any  discredit, 
except  the  supposed  disgrace  of  being  a  "  politician."  He 
belonged  to  that  much  misunderstood  and  much  abused 
class,  and  the  head  and  front  of  his  offending,  in  the  eyes 
of  many,  was  that  he  was  a  skilful  and  successful  one. 
But  he  was  a  politician  whose  aims  were  statesmanlike  for 
he  had  a  large  comprehension  of  public  affairs,  and  sought 
to  make  his  own  profound  convictions  the  policy  of  the 
countr}r.  This  was  the  only  austerity  in  his  character — 
his  deep  and  ineradicable  devotion  to  the  party  connection 
to  which  he  belonged.  In  almost  all  things  else  he  was  com- 
pliant and  flexible — but  this  line  he  would  not  bend.  In 
politics  he  was  no  trimmer,  no  compromiser,  nor  time- 
server.  His  methods  were  honorable.  I  speak  of  what  I 
know.  He  knew  how  to  handle  men,  and  to  accomplish 
results.  He  was  very  adroit,  fertile  in  resources,  and  hard 


166  ANDREW   H.   YOUNG. 

to  throw.  But  he  generally  reached  the  desired  end — 
always  a  good  one,  so  far  as  I  know — without  unfair  treat- 
ment of  political  friends  or  adversaries.  He  accomplished 
his  purpose  by  the  use  of  those  resources  with  which  he 
was  so  richly  endowed, — good  sense,  sagacity,  good  nature, 
and 

"  A  wit  in  the  combat,  which,  gentle  as  bright, 
Ne'er  carried  a  heart-stain  away  on  its  blade." 

I  am  afraid  we  have  fewer  honorable  politicians  now 
than  we  did  in  our  young  days.  The  issues  have  dwindled 
and  lost  moral  character.  The  trumpet  note  to  great  ac- 
tions sounds  not  out  its  summons  so  clearly  now  as  then. 
"  The  age  of  chivalry  is  gone.  That  of  sophisters,  econo- 
mists, and  calculators  has  succeeded."  We  had  great  bat- 
tles to  fight  from  1855  to  1872,  and  without  "  politicians  " 
to  keep  the  rudder  true,  the  Republic  would  have  gone 
down,  and  civilization  and  humanity  have  been  buried 
with  it  in  a  common  grave. 

Some  of  the  men  who  sneer  now-a-days  at  the  "  politi- 
cians" of  that  period,  know  better  and  are  contemptible; 
but  the  neophytes  of  to-day  know  no  better  and  are  only  to 
blame  for  their  ignorance. 

There  seems  no  occasion  to  dwell  with  biographical 
minuteness  upon  the  main  incidents  of  Colonel  Young's 
life.  These  have  been  given  with  accuracy  in  what  the 
papers  have  said  of  him  since  his  death.  1  seek  only  to 
note  some  of  his  personal  traits,  as  I  have  already,  and  in 
speaking  of  those  I  know  that  I  voice  the  feelings  and  sen- 
timents of  many  men  prominent  in  public  life  to  whom  the 
tidings  of  his  departure  have  brought  a  poignant  personal 
grief. 

One  of  his  rarest  peculiarities  was  the  faculty  of  making 
himself  agreeable  to  everybody.  He  had  a  great  memory, 
and  was  a  picturesque  story-teller.  He  entered  most  hap- 
pily into  the  varying  moods  and  interests  of  different  men. 
He  was  genial  and  companionable  to  the  highest  degree 


ANDREW   H.    YOUNG.  167 

and  his  society  was  coveted  by  many  great  men.  Our  late 
townsman,  John  P.  Hale,  was  particularly  fond  of  him. 
He  liked  to  be  with  him,  to  walk  with  him,  to  ride  with 
him,  to  spend  long  evenings  with  him  ;  and  it  was  a  treat 
to  be  with  them  and  hear  the  interchange  of  pleasantries 
between  men  so  naturally  humorous  as  they.  I  recall 
many  delightful  evenings  in  Mr.  Hale's  then  unbroken 
family  circle,  when  the  badinage  and  repartee  were  enjoy- 
able to  the  last  degree.  Mr.  Hale,  with  that  love  of  trees 
which  made  him  wish  to  have  one  in  every  place  large 
enough  to  hold  it,  actually  planted  with  his  own  hand  the 
trees  that  now  shade  Colonel  Young's  grave  at  Pine  Hill ; 
and  if  I  am  not  mistaken,  Colonel  Young  reciprocated  the 
compliment  by  planting  some  of  those  that  now  wave  over 
the  great  senator. 

Our  other  departed  friend,  Edward  H.  Rollins,  always 
loved  and  trusted,  enjoyed  and  leaned  on  him. 

The  late  Gov.  Edward  F.  Noyes,  brilliant,  eloquent,  and 
famous  man,  noble  patriot,  brave  soldier,  peerless  orator, 
loved  him  like  a  brother,  and  watched  over  him  only  a  few 
months  ago  in  a  critical  illness  in  Kentucky,  with  all  the 
assiduity  of  affection  and  esteem.  What  a  commentary 
upon  the  instability  of  human  life !  for  Governor  Noyes, 
then  in  perfect  health,  has  preceded  him  by  three  months  to 
the  tomb.  I  think  he  was  profoundly  and  seriously 
impressed  by  Governor  Noyes's  sudden  death. 

Among  his  numerous  living  friends  eminent  in  public 
life  I  may  mention  Senators  Blair  and  Chandler,  ex-Sena- 
tors Cragin,  Bell,  and  Cheney,  ex-Governors  Smyth,  Saw 
yer,  and  Prescott,  and  indeed  all  our  ex-governors,  sena- 
tors, and  congressmen  of  these  late  years,  besides  General 
Batchelder,  quartermaster-general,  U.  S.  A.,  and  a  host  of 
friends  of  high  rank  in  the  army. 

His  pastor,  Rev.  Geo.  E.  Hall,  to  whom  he  was  devotedly 
attached,  at  his  obsequies  very  properly  and  most  feel- 
ingly alluded  to  his  deep  and  constant  interest  in  the  old 
First  Parish  Church,  where  he  attended  on  divine  service> 


168  ANDREW   H.   YOUNG. 

and  paid  fitting  tribute  to  his  remarkable  capacity  for  per- 
sonal friendship.  In  this  connection  he  read  an  impressive 
letter  from  Rev.  Dr.  George  B.  Spalding  who  also  carried 
Colonel  Young  deep  down  in  his  heart.  In  it  he  justly 
said,  "I  have  rarely  known  a  man  possessed  of  so  many 
traits  which  call  out  our  love  and  highest  esteem." 

Colonel  Young  took  an  interest  in  the  town  where  we 
were  born,  and  loved  the  old  paternal  acres  and  the  old 
neighbors  and  townsmen  all,  and  no  one  of  them  will  hear 
of  his  departure  without  sorrow. 

He  was  a  conscientious  public  officer.  In  many  offices 
of  high  responsibility  involving  the  handling  of  large 
amounts  of  public  money  he  was  incorruptibly  honest,  and 
accounted  scrupulously  for  every  dollar.  The  last  work  of 
his  life  was  the  erection  and  fitting  up  of  the  government 
barracks  at  Newport,  Ky.  He  took  great  pride  in  it,  and 
worked  hard,  perhaps  fatally,  at  the  task.  He  did  the  work 
so  as  to  earn  the  unqualified  approval  of  the  war  depart- 
ment, and  with  signal  economy  and  honesty  of  disburse- 
ment. 

He  was  proud  of  the  service  in  which  he  was  engaged. 
He  prized  his  record  as  a  soldier,  and  was  attached  to  a 
host  of  soldier  friends  and  comrades  only  in  a  less  degree 
than  to  the  glorious  flag  under  which  he  served.  It  was 
appropriate  that  the  Grand  Army  of  the  Republic  should 
pronounce'  its  superb  burial  service  over  him  as  he  slept 
his  last  sleep,  with  the  emblem  of  the  Loyal  Legion  of  the 
United  States  shining  on  his  breast. 

Above  all  he  was  a  loyal  and  true-hearted  friend,  and 
merited  all  the  personal  friendship  which  he  inspired  in 
others.  Under  an  exterior  of  somewhat  careless  indiffer- 
ence he  hid  a  deep  affection  for  wife  and  children,  broth- 
ers, sisters,  and  all  kindred.  Those  offices  of  love  and  help- 
fulness which  he  never  failed  to  give  them  were  repaid  in 
his  last  days  by  a  devotion  on  the  part  of  his  family  which 
was  as  touching  as  beautiful. 

After  all,  how  little  can  I  convey  any  true  impression  of 


ANDREW   H.  YOUNG.  169 

this  well-known  and  much-admired  man.  Only  a  desultory 
word,  touching  here  and  there  his  prominent  character- 
istics, that  is  all  I  have  said  or  can  say.  So  close  was  he  to 
me,  so  thoroughly  entwined  in  all  my  interests  and  pur- 
suits, so  sympathetic  with  all  that  I  desired  and  strove  for? 
so  solicitous  for  my  family,  so  unfailing  a  resource  in 
every  time  of  trouble,  that  I  feel  that  outside  of  my  own 
domestic  circle  there  is  not  another  such  loss  in  store  for 
me  as  I  have  sustained  in  his  too  early  death. 

"  In  love  surpassing  that  of  brothers, 

We  walked,  O  friend,  from  childhood's  day ; 
And  looking  back  o'er  fifty  summers, 
Our  footprints  track  a  common  way.'' 

As  he  lay  in  his  coffin,  amid  the  profusion  of  flowers,  the 
roses,  and  lilies,  and  ivy  chaplets  with  which  affection  had 
surrounded  him,  and  we  looked  upon  his  face  for  the  last 
time,  there  was  a  tranquility  upon  it  which  was  beautiful. 
It  was  but  the  reflection  of  his  kindly,  sunny,  and  loving 
nature. 

And  again  as  we  committed  him  to  the  earth  on  that 
cold,  bleak,  winter  day,  we  who  had  known  and  been 
loved  by  him  in  life  felt  that  we  had 

".  .  .  made  him  a  grave  too  cold  and  damp, 
For  a  heart  so  warm  and  true." 

But  in  his  last  hours  we  had  talked  of  meeting  again  in 
the  land  of  light,  and  as  one  by  one  we  lay  away  our 
beloved,  we  live  in  that  faith  till  the  resurrection  morn. 


ORATION. 


[Delivered  at  the  dedication  of  the  soldiers'  and  sailors'  monument,. 
Derry,  N.  H,  Oct.  1,  1889.] 

MR.  PRESIDENT,  COMRADES,  AND  FRIENDS:  In  a  quite 
uncommon  sense  we  stand  on  holy  ground,  and  in  address- 
ing the  citizens  of  this  ancient  and  honorable  township,  any 
man  would  be  insensible  to  the  highest  suggestions  of  the 
place  and  occasion  if  he  were  not  mindful  constantly  of 
your  illustrious  origin  and  your  noble  and  heroic  history. 
No  town  in  America  can  boast  a  better  ancestry  than  this,, 
and  you  trace  your  lineage  back  through  strains  of  the  best 
blood  that  was  ever  employed  in  the  foundation  of  a  state. 
As  this  is  not  an  occasion,  however,  for  minute  or  compre- 
hensive historical  treatment,  we  may  not  linger  long  even 
with  the  precious  memory  of  your  Scotch-Irish  ancestors 
who  founded  old  Londonderry  here  in  the  wilderness  170 
years  ago.  That  emigration  was  in  its  characteristics  strik- 
ingly different  from  the  germ  of  nearly  all  colonial  settle- 
ments. Your  forefathers  came  here,  not  as  the  immigrant 
now  comes,  in  sheer  want  and  stress  of  food  and  shelter,  but 
from  better  lands  than  could  here  be  had,  and  from  all  the 
comfort  and  plenty  which  the  best  people  in  Europe  then 
enjoyed.  They  came,  not  from  a  mere  physical  necessity  to 
gain  the  means  of  supporting  life,  but  from  a  higher  com- 
pulsion, the  necessity  of  the  soul,  the  obligation  which  the 
Providence  of  God  lays  on  great  men  and  great  races  in  all 
ages  to  plant  and  propagate  and  disseminate  their  princi- 
ples, to  found  states,  and  to  build  themselves  into  the  work 
of  their  time  and  the  ever-progressive  life  of  the  world.  A 


ORATION.  171 

most  impressive  fact  is  found  in  the  reasons  given  by  the 
Rev.  James  McGregor,  the  first  minister  of  Londonderry, 
for  the  removal  of  the  little  band  to  whom  he  ministered 
to  America,  the  chiefest  of  which  were  "  to  avoid  oppres- 
sion, to  shun  persecution,  and  to  have  an  opportunity  of 
worshiping  God  according  to  the  dictates  of  conscience." 
And  not  less  striking  is  the  fact  that  the  memorial  of  the 
"Inhabitants  of  ye  North  of  Ireland"  to  Governor  Shute, 
of  Massachusetts,  preliminary  to  the  emigration,  setting 
forth  their  desire  and  purpose  to  remove  to  America  if 
sufficient  encouragement  should  be  given,  was  signed  by 
217  men,  of  whom  all  but  seven  signed  their  own  names. 
Nine  of  them  were  ministers  of  the  gospel,  and  three  of 
them  graduates  of  the  University  of  Scotland.  This  dem- 
onstrates that  the  original  nucleus  of  this  population, 
which  stands  before  me  now  the  consummate  flower  of  the 
best  life  that  the  progress  of  mankind  has  developed,  was  of 
exceptional  intelligence,  and  of  the  highest  order  the  world 
then  afforded.  They  were  Puritans,  and  the  description  of 
them  in  the  world-renowned  passage  of  Macaulay  still 
remains  the  most  graphic  and  truthful  thing  that  has  been 
said  of  what  he  styles  "  the  most  remarkable  body  of  men 
which  the  world  has  ever  produced." 

"  The  Puritans  were  men  whose  minds  had  derived  a 
peculiar  character  from  the  daily  contemplation  of  superior 
beings  and  eternal  interests.  Not  content  with  acknowledg- 
ing, in  general  terms,  an  overruling  Providence,  they  habit- 
ually ascribed  every  event  to  the  will  of  the  Great  Being, 
for  whose  power  nothing  was  too  vast,  for  whose  inspection 
nothing  was  too  minute.  To  know  him,  to  serve  him,  to 
enjoy  him,  was  with  them  the  great  end  of  existence.  They 
rejected  with  contempt  the  ceremonious  homage  which  other 
sects  substituted  for  the  pure  worship  of  the  soul.  Instead 
of  catching  occasional  glimpses  of  the  Deity  through  an 
obscuring  veil,  they  aspired  to  gaze  full  on  his  intolerable 
brightness,  and  to  commune  with  him  face  to  face.  Hence 
originated  their  contempt  for  terrestrial  distinctions.  The; 


17  -  ORATION. 

difference  between  the  greatest  and  the  meanest  of  mankind 
seemed  to  vanish,  when  compared  with  the  boundless  inter- 
val which  separated  the  whole  race  from  him  on  whom  their 
own  eyes  were  constantly  fixed.  They  recognized  no  title 
to  superiority  but  his  favor;  and  confident  of  that  favor, 
they  despised  all  the  accomplishments  and  all  the  dignities 
of  the  world.  If  they  were  unacquainted  with  the  works  of 
philosophers  and  poets,  they  were  deeply  read  in  the  oracles 
of  God.  If  their  names  were  not  found  in  the  registers  of 
heralds,  they  were  recorded  in  the  Book  of  Life.  If  their 
steps  were  not  accompanied  by  a  splendid  train  of  menials, 
legions  of  ministering  angels  had  charge  over  them.  Their 
palaces  were  houses  not  made  with  hands ;  their  diadems 
crowns  of  glory  which  should  never  fade  away.  On  the  rich 
and  the  eloquent,  on  nobles  and  priests,  they  looked  down 
with  contempt ;  for  they  esteemed  themselves  rich  in  a  more 
precious  treasure,  and  eloquent  in  a  more  sublime  language, 
nobles  by  the  right  of  an  earlier  creation,  and  priests  by  the 
imposition  of  a  mightier  hand Thus  the  Puri- 
tan was  made  up  of  two  different  men,  the  one  all  self- 
abasement,  penitence,  gratitude,  passion ;  the  other  proud, 
calm,  inflexible,  sagacious.  He  prostrated  himself  in  the 
dust  before  his  Maker  ;  but  he  set  his  foot  on  the  neck  of 
his  king He  espoused  the  cause  of  civil  lib- 
erty mainly  because  it  was  the  cause  of  religion.  .  . 
.  .  .  .  People  who  saw  nothing  of  the  godly  but  their 
uncouth  visages,  and  heard  nothing  from  them  but  their 
groans  and  their  whining  hymns,  might  laugh  at  them.  But 
those  had  little  reason  to  laugh  who  encountered  them  in 
the  hall  of  debate,  or  in  the  field  of  battle." 

The  progress  of  the  township  for  fifty  or  sixty  years  after 
its  settlement  affords  one  of  the  best  illustrations  in  our 
colonial  history  of  the  working  out  of  these  Puritan  princi- 
ples. The  men  who  came  here  were  men  of  great  mental 
and  physical  strength,  and  exemplified  in  a  remarkable  man- 
ner the  traits  ascribed  to  them  by  the  brilliant  historian. 
Transplanted  from  cultivated  Europe  to  this  unbroken  wil- 


ORATION.  173 

derness,  their  outward  circumstances  were  of  the  hardest 
and  severest  character,  and  without  unremitting  industry, 
without  patience  and  pluck  and  probity,  the  settlement 
must  have  perished  out  of  hand.  They  addressed  them- 
selves to  the  trials  and  hardships  and  dangers  of  their 
chosen  lot,  and  soon  brought  an  orderly  commonwealth  out 
of  the  primeval  chaos  that  environed  them.  They  built 
cabins,  levelled  forests,  removed  obstructions,  and  erected 
saw-mills  and  grist-mills,  those  earliest  accompaniments  of 
the  industrial  pioneer.  Many  of  the  leading  roads  of  the 
original  town,  before  its  great  area  was  reduced  by  slicing  it 
out  piecemeal  to  others,  were  laid  out  within  ten  or  twenty 
years  of  the  founding.  They  wrestled  with  the  giant  growths 
of  the  centuries,  and  on  their  ruins  they  cleared  these  fields 
now  smiling  with  the  harvests  that  are  golden  in  the  sun. 
All  this  time  they  had  to  defend  themselves  against  ferocious 
beasts  and  men,  as  well  as  subdue  the  wilderness,  although 
not  the  least  admirable  of  the  traits  exhibited  by  these  orig- 
inal settlers  were  the  justice  and  humanity  and  forbear- 
ance displayed  in  the  treatment  of  their  savage  neighbors, 
which  bore  legitimate  fruit  in  the  practical  exemption  of  the 
town  from  Indian  massacres  from  beginning  to  end,  although 
exposed  to  all  the  hazards  of  an  extreme  frontier  settlement. 

They  introduced  the  potato  into  New  England,  and  the 
cultivation  of  flax,  the  seed  of  which  they  had  brought  with 
them  from  Ireland  ;  and  as  they  had  been  distinguished  for 
the  manufacture  of  linen  in  their  European  homes,  so  they 
were  the  pioneers  of  that  industry  in  the  colonies;  and  the 
excellence  of  their  product  made  it  a  great  source  of  profit,, 
and  gave  it  and  them  a  wide  celebrity. 

It  goes  without  saying  that  the  provisions  for  religious 
worship  and  instruction  were  the  very  earliest  attended  to. 
The  church  was  built  first,  but  the  school-house  was  not  far 
behind.  We  might  think,  perhaps,  that  these  progenitors  of 
ours  wasted  some  of  their  time  in  contemplating  the  joys. 
and  torments  of  the  world  to  come,  but  no  people  under 
their  circumstances  ever  did  so  much  to  elevate  and. dignify. 


174  ORATION. 

and  brighten  the  world  in  which  they  lived.  If  the  Puri- 
tan's eye  was  fixed  on  the  other  world,  he  by  no  means  for- 
got his  duty  in  this ;  and  so  the  school  trod  closely  on  the 
heels  of  the  church,  in  fact  was  everywhere  established  and 
maintained  by  its  side.  The  institutions  of  religion  and 
education  were  here  coeval,  and  by  this  is  meant  the  secular 
education  of  all  the  people.  Their  idea  cannot  be  better 
expressed  than  by  repeating  the  words  of  a  distinguished 
Roman  Catholic  prelate ;  and  I  wish  that  all  the  people  of 
his  communion  would  duly  weigh  them. 

Says  Archbishop  Hughes, — "Next  to  religion  they  prized 
education.  If  their  lot  had  been  cast  in  some  pleasant  place 
of  the  valley  of  the  Mississippi,  they  would  have  sown 
wheat  and  educated  their  children  ;  but  as  it  was,  they  edu- 
cated their  children,  and  planted  whatever  might  grow  and 
ripen  on  that  scanty  soil  with  which  capricious  nature  had 
tricked  off  and  disguised  the  granite  beds  beneath.  Other 
colonies  would  have  brought  up  some  of  the  people  to  the 
school ;  they,  if  I  may  be  allowed  so  to  express  it,  let  down 
the  school  to  all  the  people,  not  doubting  but  by  so  doing 
the  people  and  the  school  would  rise  of  themselves." 

Time  has  shown  how  fully  this  conception  has  been  real- 
ized in  every  social  state  in  which  their  influence  has  pre- 
dominated ;  and  your  own  later  educational  institutions, 
which  have  given  the  town  such  an  enviable  rank,  are  but 
the  natural  outgrowth  and  development  of  the  ideas  that 
prompted  the  first  common  school  here  established. 

With  all  this  broad  and  liberal  and  advanced  statesman- 
ship, this  zealous  pursuit  of  the  arts  of  peace,  they  were 
withal  a  martial  race,  and  in  fact  so  devoted  to  peace  that 
they  would  have  it  even  if  they  had  to  fight  for  it.  Several 
of  the  emigrants  of  1719  had  been  in  the  memorable  siege 
of  Londonderry  in  1688,  and  on  that  account  afterwards 
enjoyed  various  exemptions  and  privileges  at  the  hands  of 
the  crown  and  of  their  townsmen.  In  1725,  three  London- 
derry men  were  in  the  Lovewell  expedition  against  the 
Indians.  Robert  Rogers,  the  celebrated  Indian  Ranger,  was 


ORATION.  175 

born  here  in  1727,  and  John  Stark  in  1728.  The  town 
furnished  her  quota  of  men  for  Louisburg  in  1745.  She 
was  represented  at  Crown  Point  in  1755,  and  in  the  expedi- 
tion to  Canada  in  1760.  Old  Londonderry  always  had  on 
hand  her  full  stock  of  gunpowder  and  bullets,  and  kept 
them  in  the  meeting-house  !  The  Presbyterians  of  London- 
derry were  then  a  church  militant  indeed,  and  one  doc- 
trine of  the  old  Presbyterian  ism  which  these  Covenanters 
brought  from  their  Scotch  and  Irish  homes  they  exempli- 
fied beyond  all  others  in  their  civil  and  military  life,  and 
that  was  "the  perseverance  of  the  saints." 

During  all  this  time  there  was  carried  on  here  one  of  the 
completest  democratic  governments  the  world  has  ever 
seen.  In  the  town-meeting,  where  all  was  done  by  the 
vote  of  the  majority,  there  was  the  fullest  recognition  of 
the  brotherhood  and  equality  of  men.  A  study  of  your 
town  records  exhibits  a  thorough  working  of  the  town- 
meeting,  upon  which  De  Tocqueville  and  Bryce  have  laid 
so  much  stress  as  the  nursery  of  American  liberty  and  the 
training-school  of  American  statesmanship ;  and  these  rec- 
ords will  be  an  enduring  monument  to  the  wisdom  of  the 
men  whose  associated  action  is  there  recorded.  In  view  of 
those  records  and  the  visible  results  of  the  polity  there 
illustrated,  it  is  not  too  much,  and  it  is  not  flattery,  to  say 
that  this  is  the  most  interesting  of  all  the  municipalities  of 
New  Hampshire,  and  that  around  it  will  ever  cluster  asso- 
ciations of  the  rarest  attraction  to  the  antiquary,  the  stu- 
dent, and  the  statesman. 

Under  the  combined  influence  of  this  fifty  years  of  polit- 
ical apprenticeship,  this  discipline  in  war,  in  the  rigors  of 
the  old  New  England  climate,  in  peril  from  wild  beasts 
and  still  more  savage  men,  in  "  plain  living  and  high  think- 
ing," it  is  not  strange  that  this  town,  which  had  poured 
out  its  best  blood  for  the  British  crown  and  to  wrest  and 
keep  the  dominion  of  this  great  coming  empire  from  the 
grasp  of  France,  should  have  become  ready  to  take  up  arms 
in  defence  of  her  own  ancestral  rights,  the  liberties  guar- 


176  ORATION. 

anteed  by  Magna  Charta  and  the  Petition  of  Right,  when- 
ever they  should  be  assailed,  even  though  the  ungrateful 
blow  should  come  from  the  Mother  Country.  At  an  early 
day  nowhere  did  the  sentiment  against  taxation  without 
representation,  against  arbitary  exactions  and  oppressions 
of  every  kind,  rise  higher  than  here.  And  so,  when  no 
alternative  but  war  or  submission  remained  to  the  colonies, 
the  town  entered  resolutely  into  the  conflict  of  the  Revolu- 
tion. Her  sentiment  in  favor  of  severing  the  connection 
with  England  was  well-nigh  universal ;  all  but  fifteen  read- 
ily signed  the  Association  Test,  and  the  Tories  who  refused 
were  silenced  or  driven  from  her  borders. 

Capt.  George  Reed,  afterwards  so  distinguished  in  the 
war,  marched  with  a  full  company  of  his  townsmen  to 
Bunker  Hill,  and  in  all  fully  one  hundred  men  of  London- 
derry were  engaged  in  this  first  great  battle  of  the  Revolu- 
tion. A  company  of  seventy  men  from  Londonderry  were 
in  the  battle  of  Bennington,  where  the  heroic  fibre  of  this 
town  was  tested  in  command  as  in  the  ranks,  and  Mollie 
Stark  did  not  sleep  a  widow  that  night.  By  emigration 
after  emigration  from  the  north  of  Ireland  the  settlement 
had  become  at  that  time  populous  and  strong;  and  under 
the  influence  of  her  principles  and  the  military  leadership 
of  Stark  and  Reed  she  sent  her  men  to  the  rescue  in  every 
campaign  of  Washington,  and  was  throughout  the  back- 
bone of  the  Revolution  in  New  Hampshire.  Although 
many  others  were  older,  and  several  stronger  in  numbers 
and  older  by  nearly  a  century,  yet  the  fact  remains  to  her 
imperishable  honor  that  Londonderry  from  first  to  last 
furnished  more  men  to  the  armies  of  the  Revolution  than 
any  other  £own  in  New  Hampshire.  Her  contribution  to 
the  great  struggle  in  the  single  person  of  John  Stark  was 
of  incalculable  value,  for  under  his  iron  will  and  magnetic 
leadership,  lit  up  by  the  grim  pleasantry  of  his  Scotch 
humor,  the  flank  of  the  British  column  of  invasion  wa& 
crushed  at  Bennington,  and  the  surrender  of  Burgoyne 
made  inevitable.  And  thus  helping  to  conquer  in  the  Rev- 


ORATION.  177 

olution  and  to  sever  the  connection  with  the  British  empire, 
there  is  abundant  proof  that  the  people  of  Londonderry 
acted  under  the  inspiration  of  the  political  traditions,  the 
immemorial  rights,  and  the  jealously  guarded  privileges  of 
the  English  name.  They  kept  step  to  the  music  of  Crom- 
well's Ironsides  at  Dunbar  and  Naseby,  and  won  a  victory 
not  for  themselves  alone,  but,  in  the  name  of  the  whole 
English-speaking  race,  for  all  mankind. 

Time  will  permit  not  even  an  outline  of  the  life  and 
progress  of  this  town  for  the  seventy  years  following  the 
winning  of  Independence  and  the  formation  of  the  Consti- 
tution. The  growth  and  progress  of  the  American  Union 
during  that  time  are  the  standing  marvel  and  phenomenon 
of  history.  This  town  kept  pace  with  it,  if  not  in  popula- 
tion, certainly  in  all  else  that  could  ennoble  and  uplift  a 
people.  And  so  at  the  end  of  that  period  we  can  see 
that  by  all  the  steps  of  its  political  life,  by  all  the  pro- 
gressive development  of  its  principles  in  the  town  meetings 
of  one  hundred  and  forty  years,  it  had  become  prepared 
for  the  duty  of  defending  its  liberty  wherever  and  how- 
ever assailed ;  and  when  the  impious  hand  of  treason  was 
raised  against  that  Union,  under  which  all  this  marvelous 
growth  and  progress  and  happiness  had  been  achieved, 
and  the  summons  to  arms  rang  out  over  hill  and  glen  and 
prairie,  the  people  were  too  thoroughly  matured  in  the 
school  of  liberty,  and  they  knew  its  value  too  well,  to 
suffer  the  nation  to  be  rent  asunder  by  faction  or  mur- 
dered by  traitors.  The  alacrity  and  patriotism  of  your 
response  to  the  call  to  arms  was  not  the  result  of  accident 
or  whim.  "  We  do  not  gather  grapes  of  thorns,  nor  figs  of 
thistles."  If,  when  the  test  came,  truer  and  nobler  men 
never  fought  or  died  for  a  great  cause,  it  was  because  they 
were  men  nurtured  under  our  government.  They  were 
the  product  of  our  civilization  and  institutions.  They 
were  the  ripe  fruit  of  years  of  development,  of  culture,  and 
of  civic  discipline.  The  men  who  went  to  their  country's 

12 


178  ORATION. 

defence  were  not  the  scum  of  great  cities,  not  the  refuse  of 
a  community  of  many  gradations  of  social  rank, — 

"  The  cankers  of  a  calm  world  and  a  long  peace." 

They  were  not  conscripts  forced  by  the  will  of  rulers, 
one  or  many,  into  a  service  which  was  indifferent  or  repug- 
nant to  them, — not  such  broken,  reckless,  and  worthless 
waifs  of  society  as  float  into  the  standing  armies  of  the 
world,  its  Hessians  and  its  hirelings, — not  men  without 
social  standing,  without  kinship,  who  make  up  in  other 
lands  and  ages  the  mercenary  legions  of  ambitious  con- 
querors, or  of  states  steeped  in  the  lust  of  conquest  and 
power.  No  such  cause  appealed  to  them ;  no  such  army 
came  forth  in  defense  of  the  Union.  On  the  contrary, 
they  were  the  best  blood  of  these  country  towns  of  ours, 
sons  of  the  best  men  and  women  in  them,  heads  of  young 
families,  the  bone  and  muscle  of  the  nation,  and  represent- 
ative of  its  best  and  bravest  blood  and  purpose.  They 
were  free  men  who  came  of  their  own  free  will,  and  with 
the  solemn  but  unwavering  determination  to  keep  their 
liberties  for  themselves  and  their  posterity.  They  came  in  no 
spirit  of  bravado,  in  no  vain-glory,  but  seriously,  prayerfully, 
they  answered  to  the  call  of  country,  counting  all  the 
cost  of  the  service,  with  a  full  realization  of  the  dangers  and 
trials  before  them,  but  springing  to  arms,  not  at  the  call  of 
a  master  whom  they  feared,  but  of  a  country  they  loved  and 
would  save,  and  meeting  the  duty  before  them  with  Luther's 
glorious  words,  "  I  cannot  do  otherwise,  God  helping  me  !" 
Such  were  the  men  who  went  out  from  Derry  to  fight  the 
battles  of  the  Union.  They  were  "bone  of  your  bone  and 
flesh  of  your  flesh,"  your  bravest  and  best,  representative  of 
all  that  was  best  in  your  ancestors,  and  in  the  society  that 
had  grown  out  of  a  century  of  town-meetings,  and  of  liberty 
such  as  no  nation  ever  enjoyed  before.  They  embraced 
every  condition  of  your  social  life,  the  learned  and  the  un- 
learned, the  rich  and  the  poor,  the  proud  and  the  humble ; 
together  they  rallied  around  the  standard  of  the  Republic, 


ORATION.  179 

together  they  stood,  together  they  fell,  and  together  their 
names  are  inscribed  on  this  monumental  bronze.  They  left 
behind  the  comforts  and  sweets  of  domestic  life,  the  endear- 
ments of  family  and  kindred  ;  they  swung  on  their  knap- 
sacks and  marched  with  Sherman  across  the  continent ;  they 
stood  among  the  guns  in  the  smoking  lines  of  Gettysburg ; 
they  plunged  into  the  bloody  thickets  of  the  Wilderness  ; 
they  swept  into  the  "  imminent  deadly  breach  "  of  Cold 
Harbor ;  they  were  with  Grant  when  the  Confederacy  went 
down  at  Appomattox.  The  men  of  Derry  were  no  lag- 
gards and  no  camp-followers.  They  faltered  in  the  face 
of  no  danger.  They  went  into  the  front  ranks.  They 
pressed  into  the  forlorn  hope.  They  were  enrolled  in  nearly 
every  regiment  that  New  Hampshire  sent  to  the  field.  In 
fifteen  New  Hampshire  organizations  of  troops  I  find  Derry 
represented,  and  inscribed  on  this  stone  are  more  than  150 
names  of  the  living  and  the  dead  who  took  up  arms  in  the 
defence  of  the  country.  The  town  spent  upwards  of  $50,000 
in  bounties  alone,  and  not  only  answered  every  call,  but  at 
the  end  had  filled  every  quota,  and  had  seven  men  more  to 
her  credit  towards  a  call  that  was  never  made. 

In  undertaking  to  set  forth  what  this  town  did  for  the 
preservation  of  the  Union,  we  should  fall  far  short  of  any 
due  estimate  of  its  achievements  if  we  should  fail  to  take 
into  the  account  a  more  or  less  general  view  of  the  influ- 
ences of  this  settlement  upon  the  character  and  opinions  of 
other  towns  and  states.  From  the  first,  the  men  who  planted 
themselves  here  were  a  restless,  enterprising,  and  adventur- 
ous people.  They  were  not  content  with  subduing  the  for- 
ests, the  wild  beasts,  the  savage  men  and  the  inclemencies 
of  the  climate  and  soil  of  old  Londonderry.  Their  views 
extended  further,  and  before  the  century  had  closed  they 
had  formed  settlements  in  every  direction  ;  and  such  noble 
towns  as  Bedford,  Peterborough,  New  Boston,  Antrim,  Hen- 
niker,  Merrimack,  Acworth,  and  Goffstown  received  acces- 
sions from  them,  and  most  of  these  towns  and  others  were 
started  under  their  auspices.  Nor  did  their  movement  stop 


180  ORATION. 

with  our  own  borders.  "Their  line  has  gone  out  through 
all  the  earth."  The  sons  and  daughters  of  Londonderry  are 
found  in  every  state  in  the  Union,  from  lake  to  gulf  and  from 
shore  to  shore,  carrying  with  them  always  the  sturdy  prin- 
ciples of  civil  and  religious  liberty,  which  they  inherit  from 
a  manly  and  God-fearing  ancestry,  and  wherever  they  have 
gone  in  force  the  church  and  the  school,  the  symbols  of 
New  England  civilization,  have  been  planted  side  by  side. 
In  his  racy  way  Mr.  Depew  says  that  the  secret  of  the  suc- 
cess of  the  Puritan  is  his  unrest ;  that  he  won't  stay  in  one 
place  ;  that  he  is  the  most  beneficent  of  tramps ;  he  never  has 
room  enough — he  wants  the  earth.  It  is  obviously  true, 
though  spoken  in  jest.  Not  content  with  subduing  New 
England,  he  turned  his  conquering  footsteps  towards  the 
west,  and  taking  New  York  on  his  way,  he  has  sown  the 
valley  of  the  Mississippi,  the  slopes  of  the  Rocky  Mountains, 
and  the  foot-hills  of  the  Sierras,  thick  with  the  stars  of  em- 
pire. The  sons  of  this  soil,  carrying  with  them  New  Eng- 
land training,  pluck,  and  skill,  have  made  their  way,  by  vigor 
of  intellect,  energy  of  character,  and  high  principle,  to  the 
front  ranks  of  every  department  of  business,  in  private  and 
public  life,  wherever  they  have  gone.  In  all  our  Western 
states  and  territories,  the  Puritan  has  stamped  the  impress 
of  his  principles  upon  the  constitutions  and  laws.  Inured  to 
trials  and  privations,  he  has  everywhere  had  the  courage  of 
his  convictions ;  and  he  never  went  so  far  west  or  north,  he 
never  planted 'a  ranche  so  remote  or  lonely,  on  snowy  sum- 
mit, or  in  ragged  gulch,  or  on  arid  plain,  that  you  did  not 
soon  find  a  church  and  a  school  within  reach  of  it.  He  has 
planted  his  banners  on  every  hill-top  and  sowed  the  seed  of 
his  ideas  in  every  valley,  giving  to  the  new  world  wherever 
his  influence  has  extended  a  broad  and  rational  liberty,  and 
making  it  the  perpetual  abiding-place  of  free  government. 
This  great  influence  is  the  sheer  result  of  character, — and 
never  was  there  a  laboratory  like  this  early  life  of  our  ances- 
tors, here  in  the  wilderness,  who  believed  that  the  fear  of 
God  was  the  beginning  and  the  end  of  wisdom,  never  such 


ORATION.  181 

a  crucible  for  the  melting  out  of  all  dross  and  weakness,  and 
the  formation  of  clear,  definite,  and  uncompromising  charac- 
ter,— that  logic  of  character,  as  Dr.  Twichell  says,  "  which 
might  split  hairs,  but  would  never  split  the  difference." 

I  speak  at  this  moment,  perhaps,  rather  of  that  composite 
character,  the  New  England  Yankee,  who  is  the  resultant 
of  many  ancestral  forces,  and  who  carries  in  his  veins  numer- 
ous strains  of  blood.  Many  streams  of  tendency  have  been 
lost  in  the  Yankee,  but  wherever  is  found  an  infusion  of  the 
Puritan  or  the  Scotch  Covenanter,  it  is  the  vital  principle 
of  the  man,  and  there  are  found  in  predominating  propor- 
tion those  traits  which  I  have  spoken  of  as  their  ruling  char- 
acteristics, their  Christian  fortitude,  their  self-denial,  their 
purity,  piety,  sincerity,  simplicity,  their  seriousness,  their 
independence,  manliness,  courage,  their  indomitable  patience 
and  endurance,  their  perseverance  in  the  face  of  obstacles, 
their  devotion  to  duty,  their  supreme  loyalty  to  conviction. 

Therefore  in  the  fullness  of  time,  from  this  great  evolution 
of  character  in  the  Northern  states  there  emerged  a  man, — 
the  soldier  of  the  Union  in  the  War  of  the  Rebellion,  type 
of  the  citizenship  of  towns  like  this,  who  was  willing  to 
fight,  and,  if  need  be,  to  die  for  his  ideas,  for  the  Common- 
wealth and  the  federated  Republic  that  had  grown  up  here 
in  the  western  world  from  the  seed  his  ancestors  had  sown, 
seed  "sown  in  weakness,  but  raised  in  power." 

It  was  no  haphazard,  therefore,  that  the  man  of  New 
England  lineage  fought  in  the  Rebellion.  He  was  built  that 
way.  He  shouldered  his  musket  and  locked  step  with  the 
great  army  of  the  Union,  for  the  command  rang  out  to  him 
from  every  page  of  the  story  of  his  ancestors,  and  stirred  in 
every  pulse  of  his  being.  Because  it  was  the  habit  of  his 
race  and  the  necessity  of  his  soul,  he  fought  for  civil  and 
religious  liberty,  for  the  emancipation  of  a  race  that  had 
been  cruelly  defrauded  of  its  birthright  for  200  years,  and 
for  an  indissoluble  Union  of  indestructible  states. 

In  fact,  the  Rebellion  itself,  in  its  essence,  was  an  assault, 
pure  and  simple,  upon  New  England  principles.  In  the 


182  ORATION. 

same  year  that  the  Mayflower  crossed  the  ocean,  bearing  to 
the  western  continent  the  Pilgrim  Fathers,  another  ship 
buffeted  the  same  sea,  and  brought  with  her  a  cargo  of  19 
slaves,  and  landed  them  at  Jamestown,  in  Virginia.  That 
was  the  fatal  seed  of  American  slavery,  the  upas  tree  which 
struck  deep  its  poisonous  root,  and  threatened  so  long  to 
overshadow  the  whole  land.  Mr.  Suraner  well  said,  that  in 
the  holds  of  these  two  ships  were  concealed  the  germs  of  the 
War  of  the  Rebellion.  The  existence  of  democracy  and 
slavery  in  the  same  government  was  a  palpable  anomaly, 
which  could  only  end  in  violence.  They  were  the  lion  and 
the  bear  in  the  same  cage,  each  compelled  to  fight  for  his 
life.  It  was  an  irrepressible  conflict  from  the  beginning.  At 
length  slavery,  grown  insolent,  aggressive,  and  intolerable, 
raised  the  standard  of  revolt  and  struck  at  the  nation's  life. 
The  issue  was  thus  transferred  from  the  senate  chamber  to 
the  judgment  seat  of  the  God  of  Battles,  there  to  be  pleaded 
in  that  tongue  which  alone  is  understood  the  world  over,  the 
voice  of  the  cannon. 

The  appeal  was  made  to  the  descendants  of  the  men  who 
had  braved  wintry  seas  and  every  other  terror  to  found  here 
u  a  Church  without  a  bishop  and  a  State  without  a  king," — 
the  men  who  had  stood  around  the  cradle  oi  liberty  and 
rocked  her  into  a  glorious  maturity.  There  could  be  but 
one  answer.  The  early  narrowness  and  illiberality  of  the 
Puritan  polity  had  disappeared ;  but  there  had  grown  with 
her  growth  necessarily  a  peaceful  but  stern  antagonism  to 
the  "  peculiar  institution,"  and  it  was  the  Puritan  ideas  of 
education,  of  fredom,  of  morality,  of  public  justice,  which 
the  South  could  brook  no  longer.  On  one  side,  the  seduc- 
tions of  trade  and  the  temptations  of  interest  urged  upon 
the  North  a  further  submission  ;  on  the  other,  were  the  tra- 
ditions of  a  race  of  men  devoted  to  their  liberty,  and  that 
"higher  law"  which  Theodore  Parker  said  was  "higher 
than  the  dome  of  any  state-house,"  and  which  Webster  in 
derision  said,  "soared  an  eagle's  flight  above  the  tops  of  the 
Alleghanies."  The  gage  of  battle  thus  thrown  down  was 


ORATION.  183 

promptly  taken  up,  and  proclaimed  that  the  men  who  first 
feared  God  knew  no  other  fear.  The  entire  North  was  in 
fact  infused  with  the  Puritan  spirit.  De  Tocqueville,  the 
French  political  philosopher,  said,  fifty  years  ago,  that  the 
United  States  was  only  an  enlarged  New  England,  and  that 
the  men  of  Plymouth  Rock  were  the  men  out  of  whose  teem- 
ing brains  have  flowed  the  ideas  that  have  inspired  our  life 
and  shaped  our  national  policy,  subject  only  to  the  resistance 
of  slavery  in  the  southern  belt.  Therefore,  when  the  fire  upon 
Sumter  electrified  the  nation,  it  was  Plymouth  Rock  and 
Londonderry  that  went  marching  in  the  van  of  battle. 
New  England  not  only  sent  the  children  of  her  loins,  but 
she  went  herself;  and  the  Puritan,  who  had  sat  in  judg- 
ment upon  kings  and  brought  them  to  the  block,  the  Puri- 
tan, who,  as  Macaulay  says,  "  prayed  with  his  knee  on  the 
.neck  of  the  tyrant,"  never  yet  stepped  upon  afield  of  battle 
without  staying  to  the  finish !  And  so,  after  seasons  of 
defeat  and  despair  which  made  strong  men's  hearts  fail  them 
for  fear — when  600  sanguinary  battles  had  been  fought, 
and  half  a  million  of  the  bravest  and  best  in  the  land  had 
laid  down  their  lives  in  the  struggle, — the  victory  when  it 
came  was  a  victory  of  New  England ;  not  the  triumph  6f 
force  over  force  simply,  but  the  victory  of  ideas  and  princi- 
ples which  are  the  birthright  of  humanity  in  all  lands.  As  its 
crowning  result,  the  manacles  were  struck  from  the  limbs  of 
four  million  bondmen,  and  the  country  was  freed  at  last  from 
the  burden  of  its  great  sin,  when  "every  drop  of  blood  drawn 
with  the  lash  had  been  paid  with  another  drawn  with  the 
sword."  Viewed  in  every  light,  the  war  was  a  war  for  New 
England  principles  and  ideals,  and  as  it  was  unprecedented 
in  its  proportions,  so  was  it  unique  in  every  other  respect. 
No  army  ever  before  marched  or  fought  containing  so  much 
intelligence,  so  much  moral  worth,  so  much  high  character, 
humanity,  public  spirit,  and  devotion  to  country,  as  that  of 
the  American  Union.  The  Union  soldier  never  forgot  that 
he  was  contending  with  his  brother,  with  whom  he  would 
surely  be  reconciled,  and  live  in  peace  and  amity  and  equal- 


184  ORATION. 

ity.  It  was,  therefore,  not  a  vandal  army ;  and  its  record  of 
humanity,  magnanimity,  and  clemency  to  the  conquered  puts 
to  shame  the  record  of  every  other  victorious  army  on  the 
globe.  Lee  himself  said  that  General  Grant's  treatment  of 
the  Army  of  Northern  Virginia  was  without  a  parallel  in  the 
history  of  the  civilized  world.  And  when  all  was  over,  and 
the  Union  stood  in  triumph  over  the  prostrate  cause  of  its 
adversary,  there  were  no  confiscations,  no  proscriptions,  no 
attainders,  no  executions  for  treason,  and  no  insolent  sol- 
diery lording  it  over  the  counsels  of  its  own  government  and 
the  conditions  of  peace. 

It  were  vain  to  undertake  any  discussion  of  the  vast  influ- 
ences for  good  which  have  taken  their  rise  in  this  struggle 
of  ours  for  a  larger  liberty.  Its  beneficent  results  are  seen 
in  the  events  transpiring  all  over  the  world ; — in  the  liberal- 
ization of  governments  and  laws  ;  in  the  loosening  grasp  of 
tryannies ;  in  a  united  Italy  ;  in  the  union  of  Germany ;  in 
a  republican  France ;  in  the  rising  hopes  of  every  down- 
trodden people;  in  the  regeneration  of  the  East ;  in  the  agi- 
tations for  popular  reforms  in  England ;  and  especially  for 
that  inevitable  Home  Rule  everywhere,  which  we  have  prac- 
tised for  two  centuries,  and  which  is  the  most  momentous 
discovery  in  the  whole  realm  of  political  science.  Surely,  if 
our  people  have  not  emigrated  eastward  our  ideas  have,  and 
are  shaping  the  policy  of  the  civilized  world  to-day.  Not 
only  have  we  ourselves  entered  into  a  wider,  deeper,  and 
richer  political  life,  and  feel  the  pulsations  of  a  mightier 
national  existence  throbbing  to  the  farthest  extremity  of  the 
Republic,  but  every  country  in  the  world  to-day  is  freer  on 
account  of  our  struggle.  Institutions  have  become  liberal- 
ized, wars  have  declined,  and  all  peoples  have  brighter  pros- 
pects for  the  future.  Every  peasant  and  laborer  goes  to  his 
couch  nightly  with  an  added  security  against  oppression, 
against  war  and  conscription ;  and  every  despot  and  absolute 
ruler,  I  may  say  with  equal  truth,  with  an  added  insecu- 
rity, and  with  the  Damocles  sword  of  popular  rights  hanging 
over  his  head  by  a  slenderer  thread. 


ORATION.  185 

There  is,  therefore,  a  propriety  that  cannot  be  questioned 
in  the  office  of  love  and  commemoration  which  we  are  here 
to  discharge  to-day.  You  have  met  here  to  mark  by  a  visible 
symbol  your  remembrance  and  affection  for  those  of  your 
own  number,  who,  responding  to  the  common  call,  gave  up 
their  lives  for  the  liberty  of  all,  and  have  entered  into  their 
rest.  And  not  only  do  you  honor  those  who,  having  served 
their  own  generation,  "  have  fallen  on  sleep,"  but  also  all  the 
living  of  the  great  host  who  stood  in  battle  array  for  the  Re- 
public,— for  you  have  caused  all  their  names  to  be  inscribed 
on  this  beautiful  shaft,  where,  as  we  fondly  hope,  they  may  be 
read  in  future  times,  for  more  than  the  six  generations  which 
found  the  names  of  the  fallen  at  Marathon  still  legible  on  that 
illustrious  field.  How  appropriate  and  harmonious  the  de- 
sign,— the  solid  granite  pedestal  surmounted  by  the  bronze 
military  figure,  emblematic  of  the  austere  and  grand  pur- 
pose !  And  how  well  you  have  chosen  the  site — a  place 
beautiful  for  situation,  with  a  wide  out-look  upon  hills  and 
valleys  that  are  instinct  with  noble  traditions  of  work  done 
and  suffering  borne  for  free  principles ! 

You  do  well,  and  act  in  a  high  mood,  when  you  honor 
these  men,  one  and  all.  They  were  worthy  descendants  of 
the  founders  of  this  goodly  town.  Most  of  them  were  in 
the  flush  of  early  manhood,  when  the  veins  tingle  with  life, 
and  the  blood  bounds  forward,  like  a  river  from  the  hills, 
towards  the  great  ocean  of  human  activity.  In  their  hearts 
were  all  the  passion  of  youth,  all  the  love  of  life,  all  the 
ambitious  yearnings  for  the  prizes  of  a  rational  existence. 
Some  of  them  perished  after  valiant  service  on  many  a  hard 
fought  field,  and  when  the  light  of  the  new  day  for  their 
country  had  scarcely  begun  to  dawn  out  of  the  perilous 
night  of  the  great  convulsion,  pouring  out  their  generous 
blood,  in  Mr.  Webster's  grandeur  of  phrase,  "before  they 
knew  whether  it  would  fertilize  a  land  of  freedom  or  of 
bondage."  They  honored  you  and  died  for  you,  and  you 
can  do  no  less  than  to  hold  them  in  perpetual  remem- 
brance. 


186  ORATION. 

This  monument  which  you  raise  differs  widely  in  its  pur- 
pose and  significance  from  the  massive  structures  which 
commemorate  the  great  events  of  former  times.  The  tem- 
ples and  statues,  mausoleums  and  shrines,  pyramids  and 
obelisks  of  the  Old  World,  while  they  perpetuate  the  glory 
of  a  few  leaders  and  kings,  also  mark  the  inferiority  and 
debasement  of  the  body  of  the  people.  It  is  the  glory  of 
our  age  and  country  that  the  people  are  emerging  from 
their  thraldom  and  at  last  coming  to  their  great  estate.  In 
our  modern  life,  under  the  influence  of  universal  enlighten- 
ment, we  have  learned  that  there  are  no  demigods, — that 
men  are  but  men,  and  none  without  touches  of  human 
frailty ;  and  as  to  those  in  authority  under  our  institutions, 

"  A  breath  can  make  them,  as  a  breath  has  made." 

We  set  up  no  deities,  and  we  confer  no  orders  of  nobility, 
however  great  the  service  rendered.  In  1813,  when  Wel- 
lington returned  from  that  long  wrestle  with  the  power  of 
Napoleon  on  the  Peninsula,  England  gave  him  a  dukedom 
and  £400,000,  or  $2,000,000,  which  would  represent  the 
princely  sum  of  five  millions  to-day.  We  did  nothing 
of  the  kind.  We  gave  Grant  the  presidency  and  our 
undying  love  and  gratitude,  but  no  baubles  of  wealth  and 
luxury,  no  pompous  title,  and  no  enormous  gratuity  wrung 
from  the  sweat  and  tears,  the  poverty  and  degradation,  of 
the  common  people.  This  marks  the  difference  between 
the  England  of  1813  and  the  America  of  only  fifty  years 
later, — the  transition  from  the  day  of  heroes  to  that  of 
heroism.  We  reserve  our  gifts,  our  gratuities,  our  charities 
and  tender  offices,  for  the  common  soldier  in  the  ranks. 
We  have  paid  already  more  than  a  thousand  million  dollars 
in  pensions,  and  we  are  carrying  a  pension  roll  of  a  hundred 
millions  a  year,  and  will  continue  to  carry  it  without  a  mur- 
mur. We  have  established  Homes  for  Disabled  Veterans  in 
twenty  states  of  the  Union,  and  we  spend  hundreds  of  thou- 
sands every  year  for  the  relief  of  the  widows  and  orphans 
of  those  who  counted  their  own  lives  not  dear  if  they  could 


ORATION.  187 

but  save  this  goodly  inheritance  of  free  government.  It 
was  said  of  old  that  the  whole  earth  is  the  monument  of 
great  men.  We  have  come  to  the  understanding  that  still 
more  truly  and  essentially  is  it  also  the  monument  of  the 
common  people,  without  whose  labor,  suffering,  and  sustain- 
ing strength  great  men  could  have  done  but  little  to  subdue 
the  earth  and  make  it  the  home  of  civilized  man. 

It  is  a  felicitous  circumstance,  which  invests  this  monu- 
ment with  an  interest  altogether  peculiar,  that  the  nucleus 
of  the  fund  which  has  created  it  was  donated  by  Miss  Tay- 
lor, the  noble  lady  whose  life  was  identified  with  the  educa- 
tional institutions  and  the  prosperity  and  honorable  name 
of  your  town.  It  is  one  of  the  chief  titles  of  the  town  to 
the  conspicuous  position  it  holds  in  the  world,  that  here  was 
inaugurated  the  experiment  of  a  higher  education  for  women 
in  America.  Here  the  movement  was  commenced  which 
has  revolutionized  public  opinion  and  ripened  into  the 
female  seminaries  and  colleges  of  our  country,  which  are 
opening  to  woman  a  broader  unfolding  of  her  faculties,  a 
larger  career,  a  deeper  influence,  a  profounder  respect,  and 
an  intellectual  and  moral  destiny  matching  that  of  her 
brother.  Very  largely  are  you  indebted  to  the  noble 
women  who  have  lived  among  you,  or  been  born  and  bred 
here,  for  the  impulse  which  has  given  you  your  libraries, 
academies,  and  churches.  We  should  be  ungenerous  to-day 
not  to  recognize  in  the  fullest  degree  the  grand  part  women 
are  taking  in  modern  life.  Who  does  not  know  that  their 
opinions,  sympathies,  and  support  are  the  vital  breath  of 
every  good  cause  ?  Especially  is  this  true  of  the  temper- 
ance cause,  of  religion  in  all  its  bearings,  even  of  politics, 
and  all  the  charities  and  works  of  humanity  that  denote  the 
high-water  mark  of  our  civilization.  Every  noble  enter- 
prise, every  honest  conviction  touching  the  public  welfare, 
and  all  the  varied  interests  of  society,  find  the  sources  of 
that  strength  and  power  in  the  mind  and  heart  of  woman. 
What  the  American  Union  owes  to  her,  the  story  of  woman's 
part  in  the  war,  her  work  in  the  hospital,  in  the  sanitary 


188  ORATION. 

commission,  at  the  bedside  of  the  sick  and  dying,  her 
patience,  her  endurance  of  sufferings  that  no  man  can 
know  as  she  buckled  the  armor  upon  husband,  father,  son, 
and  lover,  and  as  she  followed  him  in  his  battles,  his  wounds, 
his  sickness,  and  his  death, — that  can  never  be  told.  If 
this  address  were  wholly  devoted  to  the  work  of  women  in 
the  war,  even  here  in  our  little  state  of  New  Hampshire 
alone  it  would  be  impossible  to  recite  her  claims  to  our 
gratitude  and  remembrance.  Let  us  rejoice,  therefore,  that 
we  are  indebted  to  a  noble  woman  for  the  initial  impetus  to 
this  memorial,  and  that  the  citizens  were  only  required  to 
supplement  her  benefaction;  and  let  this  shaft  never  be 
looked  upon  without  a  silent  tribute  of  honor  and  gratitude 
to  Miss  Emma  L.  Taylor,  who,  alas!  has  been  called  up 
higher,  and  cannot  be  with  us  save  in  the  spirit  in  this  ser- 
vice to-day. 

If  there  be  any  single  lesson  which  more  than  any  other 
should  be  enforced  upon  us  by  this  occasion,  it  seems  to  me 
that  we  gain  from  it  a  clear  realization  of  our  personal  duty 
as  citizens.  The  men  whom  we  commemorate  did  the  duty 
laid  on  them  with  sublime  fidelity  and  courage.  But  duties 
vary  with  occasions.  They  were  equal  to  the  emergencies 
of  their  day  and  generation.  Happily  we  are  spared  the 
awful  necessity  of  perilling  our  lives  in  battle ;  but  there 
are  other  calls  upon  us  not  less  imperative  and  exigent. 
The  courage  which  these  our  comrades  displayed  on  the 
field  of  battle  is  needed  now  in  social  life,  in  politics,  in  con- 
duct and  character,  in  dealing  with  the  problems  that  are 
constantly  arising  to  agitate  us  anew,  and  demand  of  us  new 
labor,  devotion,  and  self-surrender.  And  how  can  we  bet- 
ter honor  the  memory  of  those  who  gave  their  lives  for  the 
Union,  than  by  showing  a  like  heroism  in  the  civic  duties 
and  dangers  of  to-day  and  the  coming  years  ?  We  may 
hope  that  the  race  of  war  is  nearly  run.  The  great  ques- 
tions of  the  future,  those 

"  Unsettled  questions  that  have  no  pity  for  the  repose  of  nations," 


ORATION.  189 

are  to  be  settled  in  peaceful  fields  and  ways,  in  the  realm 
of  debate,  in  the  town-meeting,  the  discussions  of  the  press, 
of  the  platform,  and  of  legislative  halls.  Such  are  the  ques- 
tions of  temperance,  and  the  slow  poison,  demoralization 
and  ruin  of  body  and  soul  to  be  averted  from  the  nation ; 
the  adjustment  of  the  relations  of  labor  and  capital,  upon 
which  all  public  economy  hinges ;  the  control  of  great 
moneyed  corporations  and  combinations,  to  the  end  that 
mammonism  shall  not  dominate  the  government  and  subvert 
public  liberty;  the  question  of  education,  involving  the 
supremacy  of  the  public  school  and  its  freedom  from  secta- 
rian influence  and  control ; — upon  the  proper  solution  of 
these  and  such  questions  depend  our  future  peace  and  har- 
mony. Burke,  only  a  little  more  than  a  century  ago,  spoke 
of  this  country  of  ours  as  "  a  little  speck,  scarce  visible  in 
the  mass  of  the  national  interest,  a  small  seminal  principle 
rather  than  a  formed  body,  which  serves  for  little  more 
than  to  amuse  us  with  stories  of  savage  men  and  uncouth 
manners."  To-da}T  it  embraces  sixty  millions  of  people.  It 
is  richer  by  far  than  any  other  on  the  face  of  the  globe, 
with  resources  yet  undeveloped  of  colossal  magnitude.  Its 
domain  is  broader  than  the  world  over  which  the  Roman 
eagles  flew,  its  commerce  vexes  every  sea,  its  colors  wave 
in  every  breeze,  its  sails  are  bathed  in  the  light  of  the 
Southern  Cross  and  the  constellations  of  the  northern  sky, 
and  its  influence  reaches  every  cabin  and  every  cabinet  in 
the  world.  The  cause  of  our  estrangement  among  ourselves 
is  gone  ;  nobody  laments  its  disappearance.  The  South  has 
rolled  the  heavy  burden  from  her  shoulders,  and  bounds 
forward  like  a  strong  man  to  run  the  race  of  empire  ;  and, 
with  slavery  gone  forever,  the  last  pretence  has  gone  for  a 
conflict  between  the  sections,  the  last  bar  to  equal  rights 
and  a  universal  liberty.  But  still  we  find  no  rest  and  no 
escape  from  the  obligations  which  pursue  us  ever.  "  Eternal 
vigilance  is  the  price  of  liberty."  Even  if  our  own  rights 
are  beyond  attack,  we  must  not  and  cannot  be  stupid  and 
indifferent  spectators  of  the  wrongs  of  others.  Let  us  ever 


190  ORATION. 

feel  that  whenever  the  rights  of  the  humblest  citizen  are 
assailed,  the  cause  for  which  our  comrades  died  is  again 
menaced,  and  that  until  those  rights  are  vindicated  and 
made  safe  it  is  our  duty  to  stand  again  to  our  guns,  and 
strike,  if  need  be,  for  the  justice  and  freedom  which  the 
Republic  represents.  Beyond  all  things,  indifference  to  the 
problems  and  duties  of  our  own  day  is  intolerable.  I  am 
aware  that  it  has  become  quite  the  fashion  for  some  people 
to  disparage  our  institutions,  to  depreciate  our  public  men 
and  our  political  system,  and  to  import  their  ideas  as  they 
do  their  clothes.  This  is  mischievous  and  contemptible. 
When  our  educated  classes  come  generally  to  belittle  their 
own  country,  and  count  it  vulgar  to  vote  and  take  an  inter- 
est in  politics,  the  eclipse  of  our  liberties  is  not  far  distant. 
u  I  have  an  ambition,"  says  Lord  Chatham  ;  "  it  is  the  ambi- 
tion to  deliver  to  my  posterity  those  rights  of  freedom  which 
I  have  inherited  from  ray  ancestors."  This  ambition 
should  also  be  ours.  We  are  debtors,  and  must  remain  so, 
to  our  ancestors,  and  we  must  pay  the  debt  to  our  posterity. 
They  will  justly  hold  us  responsible  to  transmit  the  great 
heritage  we  have  received. 

As  a  perpetual  reminder  of  what  is  most  glorious  in  our 
past,  as  a  step  towards  the  perpetuation  of  all  that  is  best  in 
our  national  life,  and  in  full  confidence  that  we  thus  honor 
our  comrades  and  ourselves,  this  column  is  erected  to  and 
for  and  by  the  common  people  of  this  renowned  township. 
Here  in  their  midst,  by  the  firesides  for  which  these  men 
offered  their  lives,  here  where  it  will  be  seen  daily  by  their 
neighbors  and  friends,  by  their  children  and  children's  chil- 
dren, through  the  coming  years,  we  raise  this  memorial,  this 
calm  and  undaunted  face  of  the  American  volunteer  soldier, 
and  we  bid  it  "  All  hail !  "  Its  pledge  to  the  dead  is,  that 
"  their  bodies  are  buried  in  peace,  but  their  name  liveth 
evermore ;"  and  to  the  living,  that  while  they  live,  "  when 
the  ear  hears  them  it  shall  bless  them,  and  when  the  eye 
sees  them  it  shall  give  witness  to  them."  Let  its  high 
serenity  subdue  all  faction,  all  intolerance,  all  fear.  Let  it 


ORATION.  191 

admonish  us  to  be  true ;  let  it  lift  up  our  thoughts  to  grat- 
itude, to  patriotism,  to  unselfishness,  to  a  nobler  life ! 

You  have  engraved  the  names  of  living  and  dead  with 
equal  honor  upon  this  pillar,  and  in  language  of  Doric  sim- 
plicity you  have  dedicated  it  "  in  honor  of  the  men  of  Deny 
who  fought  for  the  Union,  1861-1865."  I  unite  with  you 
in  the  aspiration  that  their  fame  may  be  fresh  and  their 
memory  glorious  long  after  Time  has  erased  their  names 
from  this  tablet,  and  when  the  stone  itself  shall  have  crum- 
bled to  dust. 

As  yonder  sun  slowly  sinks  behind  the  western  horizon, 
we  know  that  he  will  again  appear,  and 

"  trick  his  beams, 
And  flame  in  the  forehead  of  the  morning  sky." 

So  we  think  of  our  comrades  who  fought  for  the  Union, 
and  have  gone  out  from  among  us  in  the  tempest  of  battle, 
and  from  beds  of  disease  and  suffering.  We  feel  irresistibly 
that  their  lives  have  set  only  to  rise  again  and  be  "  clothed 
upon  with  a  more  glorious  body,"  and  that  their  work  for 
the  great  cause  of  Liberty  and  Light  has  but  just  begun. 

"  In  the  dream  of  the  Northern  poets, 

The  brave  who  in  battle  die 
Fight  on  in  shadowy  phalanx 

In  the  field  of  the  upper  sky  ; 
And,  as  we  read  the  sounding  rhyme, 

The  reverent  fancy  hears 
The  ghostly  ring  of  the  viewless  swords, 

And  the  clash  of  the  spectral  spears. 

"  We  think  with  imperious  questionings 

Of  the  brothers  that  we  have  lost, 
And  we  strive  to  track  in  death's  mystery 

The  flight  of  each  valiant  ghost. 
The  Northern  myth  comes  back  to  us, 

And  we  feel  through  our  sorrow's  night 
That  those  young  souls  are  striving  still 

Somewhere  for  the  truth  and  light. 


192  ORATION. 

"  It  was  not  their  time  for  rest  and  sleep ; 

Their  hearts  beat  high  and  strong ; 
In  their  fresh  veins  the  blood  of  youth 

Was  singing  its  hot,  sweet  song. 
The  open  heaven  bent  over  them, 

Mid  flowers  their  lithe  feet  trod  ; 
Their  lives  lay  vivid  in  light,  and  blest 

By  the  smiles  of  woman  and  God. 


"  There  is  no  power  in  the  gloom  of  hell 

To  quench  those  spirits'  fire ; 
There  is  no  charm  in  the  bliss  of  heaven 

To  forbid  them  not  aspire  ; 
But  somewhere  in  the  eternal  plan 

That  strength,  that  life  survive, 
And  like  the  files  on  Lookout's  crest, 

Above  Death's  clouds  they  strive. 

"  A  chosen  corps — they  are  marching  on 

In  a  wider  field  than  ours ; 
Those  bright  battalions  still  fulfil 

The  scheme  of  the  heavenly  powers ; 
And  high  brave  thoughts  float  down  to  us, — 

The  echoes  of  that  far  fight, 
Like  the  flash  of  the  distant  pickets'  guns 

Through  the  shades  of  the  severing  night. 

"  No  fear  for  them  !    In  the  lower  field 

Let  us  toil  with  arms  unstained, 
That  at  last  we  be  worthy  to  stand  with  them 

On  the  shining  heights  they  've  gained. 
We  shall  meet  and  greet  in  closing  ranks, 

In  Time's  declining  sun, 
When  the  bugles  of  God  shall  sound  recall, 

And  the  Battle  of  Life  be  won  !  " 


ADDRESS. 


[Delivered  at  Parnell  Meeting,  City  Hall,  Dover,  N.  H  ,  May  4,  1886.] 

MR.  PRESIDENT  AND  FELLOW-CITIZENS: — I  cannot 
claim  a  very  intelligent  interest  in  the  important  questions 
this  meeting  has  been  called  to  consider,  for  I  do  not 
profess  to  have  given  them  that  careful  study  which  Irish- 
men would  naturally  devote  to  them.  But  I  am  not  indif- 
ferent to  the  interests  of  freedom,  wherever  they  are  found, 
and  whenever  I  refuse  to  raise  my  voice  in  an  humble  way, 
in  advocacy  of  the  principles  of  religious  and  political 
liberty  in  all  nations,  may  my  tongue  cleave  to  the  roof  of 
my  mouth.  A  very  grave  crisis  has  arrived  in  the  affairs 
of  Ireland,  and  her  connection  with  the  British  empire 
seems  about  to  be  placed  on  a  new  basis.  After  centuries 
of  suffering  and  wrong,  Ireland  seems  to  be  on  the  eve  of  a 
political  regeneration,  through  the  courage,  the  eloquence, 
the  energy,  the  persistency  of  her  sons,  and  especially  of 
that  great  leader  of  these  later  years,  Mr.  Parnell.  He  has 
unflinchingly  held  up  her  banner  and  voiced  her  demands, 
till,  all  other  resources  and  methods  of  reducing  her  to 
submission  failing,  at  length  that  magnificent  old  com- 
moner, Gladstone,  yields  to  the  reason,  and  the  conscience, 
and  the  necessity  of  the  age,  and  has  formulated  a  plan  of 
settlement  which  recognizes  the  right  of  the  Irish  people 
to  a  controlling  voice  in  her  own  concerns — in  the  laws 
which  are  to  govern  her — and,  in  his  own  expressive 
language,  "  invests  the  law  in  Ireland  with  the  aspect  of  a 
native  and  domestic  rather  than  an  alien  institution." 

This  scheme  may  not  be  in  every  particular  well  advised, 
or  best  calculated  to  promote  the  liberty  and  the  nationality 

13 


194  ADDRESS. 

of  Ireland;  but  we  must  judge  the  plan  as  not  by  any 
means  a  perfected  one :  it  is  an  experiment,  it  is  a  step 
forward,  a  feeling  of  the  ground  before  us,  as  all  true 
statesmanship  must  be ;  and  as  such  it  seems  to  me  there 
can  be  no  doubt  that  it  is  a  step,  and  the  first  firm  and 
sensible  step  for  700  years  of  controversy,  in  the  right 
direction.  It  may  and  doubtless  will  have  to  be  modified 
in  its  details,  both  now  and  from  time  to  time  hereafter,  as 
reference  shall  point  out  the  necessity. 

When  rightly  considered,  statesmanship  is  not  a  mere 
matter  of  theory,  but  more  largely,  I  may  say  almost  en- 
tirely, a  matter  of  experience  ;  and  most  happily  experience 
has  settled  some  vexed  questions  in  regard  to  Ireland ; 
among  others,  that  coercion  is  and  must  ever  be  a  failure. 
That  has  been  the  policy  of  England  under  the  domination 
of  the  English  landed  aristocracy  for  seven  centuries.  Her 
policy  has  been  that  of  coercion  of  the  Irish  will  by  every 
means  in  her  power:  by  restrictive  commercial  regulations, 
which  have  ruined  her  trade,  her  commerce,  and  her  indus- 
tries ;  by  religious  oppression  ;  by  the  tyranny  of  landlords  ; 
by  penal  laws  of  the  crudest  character,  making  a  code  of 
Draconian  ferocity  only  to  be  enforced  by  fire  and  sword. 
All  these  have  failed  to  crush  the  Irish  spirit,  and  her  cries 
for  freedom  have  never  ceased,  but  are  to-day  louder  and 
more  imperative  than  ever  before.  That  policy  has  not  pro- 
duced peace,  nor  prosperity,  nor  comfort,  nor  contentment, 
to  say  nothing  of  liberty.  On  the  contrary,  there  have 
come  of  it  famine,  distress,  ignorance,  poverty,  degradation, 
disaffection,  a  sense  of  wrong,  and  a  bitterness  of  heart,  a 
national  animosity  ever  on  the  point  of  bursting  into  un- 
controllable rebellion,  and,  in  the  background,  those  appall- 
ing miseries  which  give  a  lurid  light  to  the  pages  of  Irish 
history. 

Therefore  Mr.  Gladstone  starts  upon  the  great  measure 
which  he  proposes  with  the  advantage  of  a  clear  concession 
that  all  other  plans,  at  least  all  opposing  plans,  have  failed ; 
and  such  is  the  danger  of  this  Irish  question  to  England 


ADDRESS.  195 

to-day,  and  such  the  inexorable  necessity  of  doing  something, 
that  it  is  incumbent  upon  his  opponents  to  either  yield  to  his 
plan  or  present  a  better  one. 

As  we  examine  this  great  scheme  of  Mr.  Gladstone's,  we 
can  clearly  see  what  a  momentous  change  it  involves  in 
the  traditional  policy  of  England  towards  Ireland,  but  it  is 
a  mere  recognition  which  that  great  man  has  the  manli- 
ness and  the  courage  to  make  of  the  prevailing  currents  of 
political  history  in  the  last  century.  The  great  political 
discovery  of  the  last  hundred  years  is  that  of  the  federative 
principle  which  we  in  America  have  put  into  practical 
operation,  the  federation  of  great  political  states  into  one 
larger  state  for  imperial  purposes,  while  each  retains  con- 
trol of  all  its  local  affairs,  and  indeed  has  supreme  authority 
over  most  of  the  concerns  of  government  which  affect  the 
happiness  and  welfare  of  its  people  from  day  to  day.  That 
is  the  American  principle.  That  is  the  American  idea, 
and  under  its  influence  federative  republicanism  has  been 
making  rapid  strides  in  Europe  and  throughout  the  civilized 
world.  England  has  held  out  firmly  against  it ;  but  it  is 
a  striking  fact  that  many  of  her  greatest  men,  her  phil- 
osophic minds,  her  thinkers,  such  men  as  Matthew  Arnold, 
Mr.  Froude,  and  Mr.  Labouchere,  not  to  speak  of  her  states- 
men, have  become  converts  to  this  system  of  government, 
and  are  pointing  out  the  absurdity  of  undertaking  to  man- 
age all  the  petty  local  affairs  of  the  great  British  empire 
in  one  legislative  body,  the  Houses  of  parliament  in  West- 
minster Hall.  Therefore  all  are  turning  to  what  is  called 
Home  Rule ;  and  Home  Rule,  the  watchword  of  Irish  agi- 
tation for  some  years  past,  is  nothing  more  nor  less  than 
that  which  is  enjoyed  by  law  and,  under  the  constitution 
of  this  country,  by  every  state  in  the  American  Union. 

In  considering  the  scheme  of  Mr.  Gladstone,  we  in  Amer- 
ica might  think  he  might  and  should  have  more  closely  cop- 
ied our  own  methods  of  securing  Home  Rule  to  the  people  of 
our  states.  But  we  must  bear  in  mind  that  the  institutions 
of  England,  hoary  with  age,  and  rooted  in  the  prejudices 


196  ADDRESS. 

of  centuries,  would  perhaps  require  a  complete  revolution 
to  adapt  them  to  the  application  of  the  federative  principle. 
I  have  thought,  and  am  still  inclined  to  believe,  that  Mr. 
Gladstone  has  made  a  mistake  in  proposing  to  take  away 
the  Irish  representation  in  the  British  Parliament.  It 
seems  to  me  that  Irish  peers  should  sit  in  the  British  house 
of  lords  as  long  as  that  moribund  institution  is  allowed  to 
cumber  the  ground  at  all,  and  especially  that  Irish  mem- 
bers should  sit  in  the  house  of  commons,  to  take  their  part 
in  all  imperial  concerns,  all  those  not  included  in  the  juris- 
diction of  the  Irish  parliament.  Why  should  they  not? 
They  are  to  be  governed  by  them,  and  why  should  they 
not  help  make  them  ?  Moreover,  it  appears  to  me  that  this 
would  be  one  of  the  strongest  ties  of  loyalty  imaginable  to 
bind  the  British  islands  together  in  a  connection  which 
ought  never  to  be  broken. 

I  believe  that  the  connection  between  Ireland  and  Eng- 
land is  a  natural  one,  ordained  by  God  and  Nature,  and 
that  it  is  not  for  the  interest  of  either  to  ever  break  it. 
Geographical  laws  settle  it.  The  whole  course  of  modern 
history  and  modern  politics  is  pointing  to  large  states, 
great  political  communities  under  one  general  government, 
as  the  necessity,  and  the  true  interest  of  mankind.  In  our 
own  time  has  come  about  the  unification  of  Italy  under 
the  leadership  of  Cavour,  Garibaldi,  and  Victor  Emmanuel, 
and  the  consolidation  of  the  German  empire  under  Bis- 
marck and  Kaiser  William,  redounding  unquestionably  to 
the  power,  the  glory,  the  happiness,  and  the  freedom  of 
those  great  peoples.  And  our  own  struggle  for  the  Union 
twenty  years  ago,  let  it  never  be  forgotten,  was  in  the 
same  direction  and  for  the  same  principle.  We  fought 
that  there  might  be  only  one  nation  on  this  continent;  we 
proposed  to  reenact  the  laws  of  Nature  which  Mr.  Webster 
was  unwilling  to  do ;  and  we  vindicated  that  principle  by 
a  lavish  expenditure  of  blood  and  treasure.  But  we 
deemed  that  system,  the  union  of  the  states,  perfectly  con- 
sistent with  liberty,  and  we  would  have  stood  in  line  of 


ADDRESS.  197 

battle  again,  and  would  now  at  any  moment,  against  any 
attempt  to  deprive  the  people  of  any  state  of  that  Home 
Rule,  which  is  the  ancestral  privilege  of  each,  and  the  very 
breath  of  life  of  our  public  liberty.  Let  us  understand 
this.  New  Hampshire  is  a  free  state,  but  not  in  all  re- 
spects a  sovereign  state ;  New  York  is  a  free  state,  but  not 
in  all  respects  a  sovereign  state ;  Massachusetts,  free  and 
glorious  commonwealth  as  she  is,  is  yet  not  sovereign. 
She  is  a  part  of  a  great  whole  ;  not  a  subject  part,  much  less 
a  despised  and  proletarian  member,  but  an  integral  part, 
"bone  of  its  bone,  and  flesh  of  its  flesh,"  and  partaking  of 
all  its  life  and  energy,  and  glory ;  not  sovereign  in  all 
respects,  but  free  in  all  essential  ones  and  gladly  rendering 
that  allegiance  to  the  one  great  national  entity,  the  United 
States  of  America,  whose  service  is  perfect  freedom.  And 
so,  applying  the  same  principles  to  the  union  of  the  British 
islands,  I  believe  that  God  has  placed  them  there  in  the 
seas  together,  and  destined  them  to.  live  together  forever, 
and  "whom  God  hath  joined,  let  not  man  put  asunder." 
But  in  the  name  of  liberty,  let  their  connection  be  that  of 
equals,  not  the  connection  of  the  slave  and  his  master,  the 
wolf  and  the  lamb,  the  lion  and  his  prey.  Smarting  under 
the  sense  of  injustice  and  oppression,  and  the  contempt  of 
a  lordly  aristocracy,  some  Irishmen  may  have  sometimes 
thought  and  spoken  of  an  utter  and  everlasting  separation 
from  her  oppressor,  but  I  do  not  understand  that  to  be 
the  deliberate  desire  of  her  leaders  or  her  people  today,  or 
at  any  time.  That  measure  of  liberty,  of  Home  Rule,  and 
participation  in  the  government  of  the  kingdom  which  is 
perfectly  consistent  with  the  unity  of  the  empire,  that  I 
understand  is  all  Mr.  Parnell  asks,  all  that  the  Irish  people 
expect,  all  that  Mr.  Gladstone  proposes  to  give.  And  if  I 
read  her  history  aright,  that  and  that  only  has  been  the 
object  of  her  unceasing  struggle  for  centuries ;  that  only 
was  desired  and  proclaimed  publicly  by  Flood  and  Grattan 
and  Plunket  and  O'Connell,  and  their  illustrious  co-work- 
ers before  and  since  their  time.  Grattan  especially,  whom  I 


198  ADDRESS. 

am  inclined  to  think  of  as  almost  if  not  quite  the  greatest  of 
all  Irishmen,  never  failed  to  declare  the  full  sympathy  of  Ire- 
land with  England,  and  the  compatibility  of  an  ardent  love  of 
independence  with  a  devoted  attachment  to  the  connection. 
He  said,  "  I  am  desirous  above  all  things,  next  to  the  liberty 
of  the  country,  not  to  accustom  the  Irish  mind  to  an  alien 
or  suspicious  habit  with  regard  to  Great  Britain."  And 
Burke,  the  greatest  Irishman  ever  born,  if  Grattan  was  not, 
said,  "  I  would  have  Ireland  governed  b}'  Irish  notions  and 
Irish  prejudices,  but  I  am  convinced  that  the  more  Ireland 
is  under  Irish  government,  the  more  she  will  be  bound  to 
English  interests."  That  statement  animated  Grattan  on 
the  16th  of  April,  1782,  104  years  ago  almost  to  a  day, 
when,  after  the  struggle  of  many  years,  he  passed  through 
the  parted  ranks  of  the  Irish  volunteers  into  the  old  Par- 
liament House  of  Ireland  to  move  the  emancipation  of  his 
country.  Then  it  was  that  he  pronounced  those  glowing 
words  that  will  dwell  forever  on  the  lips  and  in  the  mem- 
ories of  men.  "  I  am  now,"  he  exclaimed,  "  to  address  a 
free  people.  Ages  have  passed  away,  and  this  is  the  first 
moment  in  which  you  could  be  distinguished  by  that 
appellation.  I  found  Ireland  on  her  knees ;  I  watched 
over  her  with  a  paternal  solicitude  ;  I  have  traced  her  pro- 
gress from  injuries  to  arms,  and  from  arms  to  liberty.  Ire- 
land is  now  a  nation.  In  that  character  I  hail  her,  and, 
bowing  in  her  august  presence,  I  say  JEsto  perpetua  !  " 

That  day  the  independence  of  Ireland  was  proclaimed  and 
acquiesced  in  by  the  English  government.  But  she  was 
not  yet  prepared  for  freedom.  Parliamentary  reform  could 
not  then  be  accomplished,  and  eighteen  years  of  systematic 
bribery  and  corruption  of  the  Irish  Parliament  accomplished 
the  union  in  1800,  and  the  overthrow  of  her  parliamentary 
existence.  Since  then  what  a  nightmare  of  horrors  has 
been  her  portion  !  The  never  ending  tragedy  of  oppression 
and  wrong,  of  tyranny  and  resistance,  of  hunger  and  degra- 
dation and  exile  of  her  children  of  genius,  lit  up  only  by 
the  fierce  resistance  of  her  sons,  whose  hearts  were  aflame, 


ADDRESS.  199 

and  whose  lips  were  on  fire  with  eloquence,  as  if  they  had 
been  touched  by  a  coal  from  the  altars  of  God !  She  has 
had  her  Flood,  she  has  had  her  Grattan,  her  Burke,  her 
Curran,  her  Sheridan,  her  Emmett,  her  Phillips,  her  O'Con- 
nell,  her  O'Brien,  her  Meagher,  and  no  one  of  them  has  been 
false  to  Ireland  or  to  Irish  independence.  They  have 
voiced  her  oppressions,  her  clamors  for  justice,  her  appeals 
for  liberty,  and  in  her  defence,  and  in  her  sacred  name, 
they  have  produced  those  masterpieces  of  human  speech 
that  will  live  as  long  as  the  English  tongue  survives,  or 
any  read,  with  beating  hearts  and  streaming  eyes,  the  story 
of  that  struggle  for  liberty  which  illuminates  and  conse- 
crates the  annals  of  mankind. 

The  great  men  of  her  past  are  succeeded  today  by  no  un- 
equal footsteps,  by  Charles  Stewart  Parnell,  who  has  the 
blood  of  Old  Ironsides  in  his  veins.  By  every  fair  standard 
Parnell  is  a  very  remarkable  man ;  and  he  has  certainly 
shown  a  courage,  a  persistency,  a  patriotism,  a  sagacity, 
never  surpassed  in  any  age  by  a  political  leader.  He  has 
welded  together  the  Irish  people  in  a  common  purpose  as  no 
man  ever  has  before  ;  and  Ireland  and  Irishmen  cannot  be 
too  grateful  to  him.  I  do  not  understand  that  he  accepts 
Mr.  Gladstone's  scheme  as  any  thing  more  than  an  install- 
ment of  the  ultimate  liberties  of  his  country.  But  if  that  bill 
is  really  of  the  nature  we  believe  it  to  be,  if  it  be  the  begin- 
ning of  the  end  of  a  long  struggle  for  freedom,  if  it  be  the 
herald  of  the  termination  of  the  strife  of  seven  centuries,  if 
her  long  night  of  oppression  is  about  over  and  a  new  era  for 
Ireland  dawning,  then  indeed  may  Parnell,  as  he  takes  by 
universal  acclaim  the  first  seat  in  the  new  Parliament  of  Ire- 
land, with  even  more  truth  than  Grattan,  say,  "  At  length  I 
address  a  free  people ; "  and  his  statue,  its  foundations 
already  laid  deep  and  strong,  will  be  built,  and  its  capstone 
placed  in  every  Irish  heart  the  world  over. 

But,  for  the  grandeur  of  the  prospects  now  unfolding 
to  Ireland,  another  name  is  entitled  scarcely  less  to  the 
applause  of  Irishmen,  the  name  of  William  Ewart  Glad- 


200  ADDRESS. 

stone.  This  great  man,  at  the  age  of  seventy-six,  the  age 
of  conservatism  rather  than  of  innovation,  after  more 
than  fifty  years  of  service  in  the  front  rank  of  English 
statesmen,  after  gaining  laurels  as  a  scholar  and  author 
which  would  give  any  man  an  immortal  name,  seems  destined 
to  make  the  pacification  of  Ireland,  may  I  not  say  the  com- 
plete reconciliation  of  England  and  Ireland,  the  crowning 
glory  of  his  long  and  illustrious  public  career.  This  man, 
taller  by  the  head  than  his  contemporaries,  looks  over  the 
mountain  tops  and  sees  the  sun  rising  and  ushering  in  a 
better  day,  before  the  morning  rays  have  beamed  on  them 
and  while  they  are  still  moping  in  the  shadows  of  the  old 
night.  Sensitive  to  public  opinion,  sensitive  to  the  progress 
of  ideas,  he  discerns  that  the  days  of  absolutism,  that  the 
days  of  despotic  power,  of  coercion,  and  of  repression,  are 
gone  by ;  and  with  the  courage  of  his  convictions  he  comes 
forward  and  asks  that  England  practise  the  doctrine  she  has 
so  often  inculcated  upon  others,  that  the  concession  of  local 
self-government  is  not  the  way  to  sap  or  impair,  but  the 
way  to  strengthen  and  consolidate  unity.  And  then  he 
adds,  in  his  own  lofty  language,  "  I  ask  that  we  apply  to 
Ireland  that  happy  experience  which  we  have  gained  in 
England  and  Scotland,  where  the  course  of  generations  has 
now  taught  us,  not  as  a  dream  or  a  theory  but  as  practice 
and  as  life,  that  the  best  and  surest  foundation  we  can  find 
to  build  upon  is  the  foundation  afforded  by  the  affections, 
the  convictions,  and  the  will  of  the  nation."  Edmund 
Burke,  in  his  well  nigh  universal  prescience,  knew  this 
truth  a  century  ago  when  he  wrote,  "  I  am  convinced  that 
no  reluctant  tie  can  be  a  strong  one,  and  that  a  natural, 
cheerful  alliance  will  be  a  far  more  secure  link  of  connec- 
tion than  any  principle  of  subordination  borne  with  grudg- 
ing and  discontent."  This  is  no  new  truth,  but  it  is  Glad- 
stone's title  to  glory  that  he  was  the  first  English  premier 
to  recognize  in  his  dealings  with  Ireland,  and  act  upon,  a 
truth  so  profound  and  important. 

Let  us  not  forget  the  great  land   measure,  the  scheme 


ADDKESS.  201 

for  the  nationalization  of  the  land,  which  Mr.  Gladstone 
has  introduced  along  with  and  as  part  of  his  plan  of  Home 
Rule.  I  do  not  feel  qualified,  and  I  do  not  assume  to  pass 
on  the  merits  of  the  land  bill ;  but  every  man  who  under- 
stands even  the  rudiments- of  the  Irish  question  knows  that 
one  of  the  chief  instrumentalities  of  the  oppression  and 
misery  of  Ireland  is  the  possession  of  the  land  by  a  few 
aristocrats  to  the  exclusion  of  the  people,  and  that  no 
effectual  reform  in  the  Irish  condition  can  be  accomplished 
without  wresting  the  land  from  the  hands  of  those  who 
have  usurped  its  ownership.  But  now  our  hope  is  that 
absenteeism,  with  all  its  scandalous  wrong  and  cruelty,  the 
tyranny  of  grasping  landlords,  and  the  eviction  of  Irish 
tenants  because  they  cannot  pay  an  impossible  rent,  all 
this  is  to  be  swept  away.  God  grant  that  a  system  so  mon- 
strous may  not  stand  upon  the  order  of  its  going,  but  go  at 
once ;  and  happy  shall  we  be  in  America  if  we  awake  in 
season  to  the  imperative  obligation  to  keep  God's  heritage 
of  the  land  in  the  hands  of  the  people  and  out  of  the 
ravenous  jaws  of  capitalists  and  landsharks. 

This  at  any  rate  we  may  now  say,  whatever  may  be  the 
fate  of  Mr.  Gladstone's  bill  in  the  form  in  which  it  is  now 
before  parliament  and  the  British  people,  in  any  event  Ire- 
land will  never  return  to  her  old  condition.  A  new  depar- 
ture has  been  taken,  coercion  is  a  thing  of  the  past,  and 
Home  Rule  in  some  form  or  other  is  a  certain  fact  of  the 
future.  Mr.  Gladstone's  action  has  made  that  inevitable, 
and  it  is  my  belief  that  the  great  body  of  the  workingmen  of 
England,  who  now  hold  her  sceptre  of  dominion,  will  rally 
round  Gladstone,  and  carry  his  measure,  modified  perhaps 
by  the  discussion  and  agitation  of  the  fiery  ordeal  through 
which  it  is  passing,  triumphantly  through  the  house  of  com- 
mons. It  will  be  a  bitter  pill  for  the  house  of  lords,  but 
they  won't  resist  it  long.  If  they  do,  the  men  who  Mat- 
thew Arnold  says  are  "impervious  to  ideas,"  will  stand  a 
chance  to  learn  something  in  another  way.  To  speak  fig- 
uratively, the  streets  of  London  will  be  strewn  with  the 


202  ADDRESS. 

wrecks  of  shields  and  ducal  coronets  and  coats  of  arms,  and 
such  trumpery,  as  the  laborers  of  England  pass  to  the  pos- 
session of  their  inherent  rights. 

And  then  will  come  the  crucial  test  of  the  Irish  race. 
If  it  can  bear  prosperity  as  it  has,  borne  adversity,  if  it  can 
be  as  true  to  freedom  in  possession  as  it  has  been  to  free- 
dom when  denied,  a  great  future  unfolds  before  her.  Some 
one  has  said  that  God  hammers  every  nation  on  the  anvil 
of  the  fates  of  which  he  ever  intends  to  make  anything. 
Ireland  has  certainly  stood  her  share  of  the  hammering, 
and  let  us  hope  that  she  will  know  how  to  use  that  instal- 
ment of  liberty  which  seems  about  to  be  paid  to  her  uncon- 
querable spirit  and  patient  endurance.  Let  us  hope  that 
she  will  be  equal  to  her  opportunities,  and  that  taking  up 
the  line  of  march  as  a  great  and  free  nation,  she  will  in  the 
future  as  in  the  past  help  to  continue  the  unending  proces- 
sion of  civic  triumphs  which  have  built  up  that  great  power 
"  whose  morning  drumbeat,  marching  with  the  sun,  and 
keeping  company  with  the  hours,  encircles  the  earth  with 
a  continuous  and  unbroken  strain  of  the  martial  airs  of 
England." 

Meantime  we  in  America  have  our  duties  to  perform  in 
this  emergency.  Nothing  is  more  certain  than  the  influ- 
ence of  America  in  all  the  great  movements  of  Europe.  It 
is  evident,  particularly,  that  the  views  entertained  in  the 
United  States  in  regard  to  England  and  Ireland  are  having 
great  influence  upon  the  course  of  public  affairs  in  Great 
Britian.  Let  us  bring  that  influence  to  bear  upon  the 
English  parliament  in  every  proper  way.  Let  us  proclaim 
the  sympathy  of  America  with  Ireland  by  all  those  expres- 
sions and  agencies  of  public  opinion  which,  nowdays, 
far  more  than  cannon  and  bayonets,  determine  national 
policies  and  measures  of  legislation.  Let  us,  by  such  meet- 
ings as  this,  held  all  over  the  country,  stand  by  Parriell 
and  Gladstone,  and  hold  up  the  hands  and  sustain  the 
hearts  of  all  those  who  are  making  this  gallant  struggle  for 
Irish  emancipation.  There  are  more  Irishmen  today  in 


ADDRESS.  203 

the  United  States  than  in  Ireland  and  England  together. 
But  not  Irishmen  alone  are  interested  in  the  issue  of  this 
question,  but  every  man  who  loves  political  liberty,  and 
desires  to  see  all  poeples  in  the  enjoyment  of  freedom. 

I  have  quoted  the  beautiful  words  in  which  Daniel  Web- 
ster paid  tribute  to  the  glory  and  majesty  of  the  English 
dominion.  Let  me  bring  these  imperfect  remarks  to  a  close 
by  repeating  his  far  more  weighty  and  memorable  words 
in  commenting  on  the  relation  of  Russia  to  Hungary. 
These  words  when  spoken  were  heard  across  the  ocean,  and 
I  would  they  might  be  heard  again  and  heeded  by  every 
man  in  England  who  dreams  of  holding  Ireland  still  longer 
in  subjection.  Said  he,  "There  is  something  on  earth 
greater  than  arbitrary  or  despotic  power.  The  lightning 
has  its  power,  and  the  whirlwind  has  its  power,  and  the 
earthquake  has  its  power,  but  there  is  something  among 
men  more  capable  of  shaking  despotic  thrones  than  light- 
ning, whirlwind,  or  earthquake,  and  that  is  the  excited  and 
aroused  indignation  of  the  whole  civilized  world." 


INDEX. 


PREFACE  BY  SENATOR  CHANDLER, 3 

BIOGRAPHY  OF  DANIEL  HALL,      ......  5 

ADDRESSES. 

ABRAHAM  LINCOLN, 13 

JOHN  P.  HALE, 31 

ULYSSES  S.  GRANT, 118 

JOHN  B.  GOUGH, 132 

DANIEL  M.  CHRISTIE, 140 

EDWARD  F.  NOYES, 158 

ANDREW  H.  YOUNG, 163 

ORATION  DELIVERED  AT  DERRY,  N.  H.,        ....  170 

ADDRESS  AT  PARNELL  MEETING,  DOVER,  N.  H.,  .         .         .  193 


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